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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| The Battle of Reynosa |
| 2009-10-22 |
| A clash between the Mexican army and about 60 assailants turned some this city’s streets into a battle zone for about an hour early Tuesday morning. The group fired shots at soldiers patrolling the Reynosa-Matamoros highway near Motel Dalà about 1:20 a.m., the Mexican Defense Ministry said in a news release issued Wednesday evening. The attackers rode inside about 20 newer-model trucks as they fired guns and hurled grenades at the military convoy. No injuries were reported by neighbors and passersby, though one soldier suffered a gunshot wound to his leg. It remains unknown whether any of the criminals were injured during the conflict. Two trucks were damaged after apparently barreling into obstacles, and five vehicles within the convoy were riddled with gunshot holes. No arrests were made in connection with the attack, which left about 2,000 cartridge casings and 40 spent grenades littering the area. Minutes before the street battle, a state police convoy had circulated in the same area and also confronted a group of armed aggressors, according to the Defense Ministry statement. Mexican media said the shootout left six colonias without electricity after several power cables were destroyed amid the chaos. Newspaper El Mañana reported Wednesday — before the Defense Ministry issued its statement — that several people in addition to the injured soldier suffered gunshot wounds and that seven people were arrested. The newspaper also said at least 5,000 cartridge casings were found at the crime scene. Since Calderón took office in December 2006, his offensive against the cartels that smuggle drugs into the United States has been met with unprecedented brutality, leaving more than 13,500 people dead, according to The Associated Press. Much of the headline-grabbing border violence has been in cities like Juárez, across the border from El Paso, and Tijuana, across the border from the San Diego metro area. In early September, however, the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College closed for a weekend after bullets from a shootout in Mexico struck a building and a car on the campus. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #1 Seems tailor-made for air support. |
| Posted by: gromky 2009-10-22 23:21 |