MEXICO CITY — A shootout that began in a shopping center and spilled onto a highway in northern Mexico caused the death of seven suspected drug cartel gunmen and one federal police officer while freeing two kidnap victims, police said Tuesday.
Federal acting on a report of a kidnapping went to a shopping mall in the city of Torreon Monday night and were met with gunfire, the Federal Public Safety Department said.
Police and soldiers then chased the kidnappers onto a nearby highway, where the main shootout occurred. One suspect and three policemen were wounded, as were two kidnap victims.
Police said the shootout apparently involved members of the Zetas drug gang, a group of hit men allied with the Gulf cartel who have expanded from drug trafficking into kidnapping and extortion.
The Zetas have been involved in some of the most bloody confrontations in the drug war that has cost more than 15,000 lives in Mexico over the last three years.
Another violent cartel, the La Familia gang, strung up about a dozen banners in the western state of Michoacan on Monday urging the public at large and other gangs to form a common "resistance” front against the Zetas.
The banners in the state capital of Morelia and the city of Apatzingan were quickly removed by police.
In the border city of Ciudad Juarez, state police said they have detained a suspect in the killings of 16 people, many of them teenagers who had gathered for a party on Saturday.
Ten people were found dead at the scene and six died at hospitals.
State police said they have not yet established a motive for the killings.
President Felipe Calderon condemned the Juarez attacks in a message sent Tuesday from Tokyo, where he is on a visit. He said he had ordered federal prosecutors to aid in the investigation.
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