Boy dies from taco shop grenade in Mexico
Agence France-Presse | 06/12/2009 8:13 AM
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MEXICO CITY - A 15-year-old boy died when a grenade hit a taco shop Thursday during a clash betweeen suspected hitmen and police in western Mexico, while 19 other suspected drug deaths were reported overnight in the north of the country.
Soldiers, meanwhile, detained a top drug-trafficking suspect sought by US authorities amid an increasingly firm government clampdown on drug gangs.
Drug-related violence is blamed for the deaths of some 7,700 people since the start of last year.
A grenade hit a taco shop during the clash in the western city of Uruapan, causing a gas tank explosion which killed the boy, a spokesman for the Michoacan state attorney general's office said.
The police officer died in a hospital emergency room from bullet wounds, while several others were injured, the spokesman added, declining to be named.
Meanwhile, 19 died in suspected drug attacks overnight Wednesday to Thursday in the volatile northern state of Chihuahua, including 16 in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, state authorities said.
The government has deployed more than 36,000 troops nationwide in a bid to stem the violence and clamp down on drug gangs, including thousands in Ciudad Juarez, the country's most violent city.
Mexican soldiers on Thursday detained a drug trafficker suspected of working for the powerful Sinaloa cartel in the northwestern border city of Tijuana, an official spokesperson said, declining to be named.
The man was identified as Filiberto Parra, a top suspect sought by the US Drug Enforcement Administration who previously worked for the Tijuana cartel, the official said.
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