Mexico, February 19: Mexican soldiers have shot dead eight suspected members of drug gangs in two separate incidents in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon.
Mexico’s Defense Department said on Friday that government soldiers came across a group of gun-toting men and engaged in a fierce clash with them in Guadalupe suburb of Monterrey — situated 993 kilometers (616 miles) north of the capital Mexico City.
The shootout left five gunmen dead, media reported.
In a Separate incident, three assailants were killed when a firefight broke out between gunmen and soldiers in Juarez suburb of Monterrey.
According to Mexican Attorney General Arturo Chavez, Mexico’s criminal gangs and drug cartels killed more than 15,000 people in 2010, making it the deadliest year-ever despite government’s crackdown.
Mexico says more than 34,200 people have been killed in drug violence and bloody war between drug cartels since December 2006.
The spike in drug-related violence comes despite a crackdown launched by President Felipe Calderon against drug cartels. He has ordered the deployment of about 50,000 troops across the country to combat drug gangs.
Calderon has successfully pushed the United States to acknowledge its own responsibility for the violence in Mexico since it is the American market that fuels drug-trafficking and American guns smuggled into Mexico that are used by the drug gangs.
To many Mexicans, the rising count of gruesome drug-related murders is evidence that the government’s strategy has failed.
—-Agencies