MEXICO CITY (AP) — What started as an ambush quickly transformed into a manhunt on Wednesday afternoon, when police in Mexico’s northern border state of Sonora repelled a highway attack, then chased injured shooters into the mountains nearby.
It was the second shootout in two days in a region where escalating clashes between authorities and powerful local gangs threaten to put a damper on the country’s Agents from the state attorney general’s office were attacked while driving between the towns of Santa Ana and Magdalena de Kino, 56 miles (89 kilometers) from the Arizona border, authorities said in a post on Facebook. The attackers left three assault rifles, a truck and smears of blood before fleeing onto a mountain nearby.
The attack followed a more fatal confrontation in the neighboring town of Altar on Tuesday morning, when gangs shot and injured at least four military personnel and a state police officer. Initially Sonora’s public security department took to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, to report one member of the military had been shot dead, before hastily deleting the post. headtopics.com
Speaking to local reporters, María Dolores Del Río, head of Sonora’s security department, said the attack was a regrettable symptom of her office’s crackdown on organized crime in the region. Altar, in particular, is a well known hub for
Images of the Altar attack circulating on social media appear to show one completely burned military truck and another civilian truck peppered with bullet holes and spray-painted “vtasma,” believed to be the call sign of a violent wing of the powerful Cazadores gang. headtopics.com
As tensions in the region rise, several other towns have cancelled their traditional Day of the Dead celebrations.