American Mormon community members killed in Mexico

Mexico City, Nov 5 (AFP/APP): At least three women and six children from an American Mormon community in northern Mexico have been killed in an ambush in an area notorious for drug traffickers and bandits, a relative said.

The government deployed the army to fight drug trafficking in 2006, but experts blame the so-called “drug war” for the spiraling violence between fragmented cartels and the military, which has lead to more than 250,000 murders.

Julian Lebaron said his cousin was traveling with her four children to the airport when she was attacked and shot in Rancho de la Mora, an area near the US border.

“It was a massacre,” Lebaron, an activist who has denounced criminal groups in the area, told Formula Radio.

His cousin’s van had been set on fire with the victims inside, he said.

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Two other vehicles were found several hours later, containing the bodies of two women and a boy and a girl of about ten years.

At least five other children — one of whom was shot and wounded — managed to escape and walk home, and a girl was reported missing after having run into the woods to hide, Lebaron added.

The Chihuahua state prosecutor, Cesar Augusto Peniche, said the number of victims remains “confused”.

The attack took place between Chihuahua and Sonora states.

Communication with the area — which is mountainous and forested — is also difficult, Peniche said.