39 killed in Mexico’s drug wars

MEXICO CITY - At least 39 people were killed in separate attacks in two Mexican cities in the country’s ongoing drug war, police said Saturday.

The attacks began late Thursday night. In the northern city of Madero in Tamaulipas state, police found 20 corpses - 18 male and two female - in five locations, after receiving anonymous phone calls.

The killings bore the signature of Mexico’s vicious drug cartels: The victims’ hands were tied and they had been all been shot.

Meanwhile, an armed gang attacked a drug rehabilitation centre in Chihuahua city, killing 19 youths and injuring at least six others.

The centre was reportedly attacked by between 25-30 armed men. The assailants forced the victims to lie down on the floor and shot them dead with automatic weapons, a police spokesman told DPA.

The head of the police intelligence unit, Saul Hernandez, confirmed that the attack, the third of its kind in eight months, occurred at about 11 pm Thursday at the Fe y Vida (Faith and Life) centre. Chihuahua is about 1,400 km north of Mexico City.

The authorities have attributed the killings to revenge attacks between rival drug-smuggling gangs, in particular the Mexicles and Aztecas gangs.