ACAPULCO: At least 16 people were killed including a dozen police officers in two armed attacks in Mexico on Monday, Western media reported.
Prosecutor Alejandro Hernandez said that unidentified attackers targeted a security patrol in the municipality of Coyuca de Benitez, in the southern state of Guerrero.
He said according to initial information, 11 members of the municipal police force were killed in the attack. He added that the reason behind the massacre was being investigated.
Authorities said a senior state security official was traveling in the convoy when it was targeted. He did not confirm media reports that he was killed along with police bodyguards.
While the second attack, in the neighboring western state of Michoacan, left five civilians dead and two more injured.
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According to the state prosecutor’s office a group of gunmen targeted a brother of the mayor of the town of Tacambaro.
Mexico is plagued by cartel bloodshed that has seen more than 420,000 people killed since the government deployed the military in its war against drugs in 2006.
Mexico has also recorded more than 110,000 disappearances since 1962, mostly attributed to criminal organizations.
Guerrero and Michoacan are among the country’s most violent regions due to confrontations between security forces and drug traffickers.
