Twenty killed in Mexico violence
Police killed 15 gunmen in a fierce battle just south of the Arizona border after tracking assailants believed to have abducted and killed five Mexican policemen into the nearby hills with a helicopter.
Sonora state police say about 40 assailants drove into the town of Cananea, 20 miles south of the US border, in up to 15 vehicles and seized four policemen in two patrol cars.
Sonora police say the bullet-riddled bodies of the four, along with 50 spent cartridges, were found on the side of a road hours later. Three other officers were seized elsewhere. Two were released earlier in the day, and one was freed during the later gun battle.
The governor of Sonora says a total of five policeman were killed in the day’s fighting, but did not specify how the fifth officer died.
The gunmen fled and tried to hide in mountainous terrain around the town of Arizpe, about 50 miles south of Cananea.
The Sonora state government says police followed the assailants, engaged in a shootout and killed 15 of the gunmen and seized 15 assault rifles and eight pistols.
