Twenty-two people, including five policemen, were killed in a gunfight in northern Mexico in the bloodiest clash of a five-month-old government offensive against drug gangs.
Shooting broke out when state police backed by helicopters and soldiers swooped on a ranch in Sonora state, just south of Arizona, where drug hitmen who had abducted 11 people were hiding, Mexican newspapers said today.
The police and army killed 15 members of the drugs gang in Wednesday's five-hour clash. Five policemen died and the cartel hitmen also killed two civilians, the newspapers said.
President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops to fight drugs gangs in mostly northern and western states since he took office in December.
More than 900 people have been killed in drug violence in Mexico this year, most of them in turf battles between the Gulf Cartel from northeastern Mexico and an alliance of traffickers headed by kingpin Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.