Mexico drug-related violence claims 43 lives

Drug-related violence in Mexico claimed 43 lives, including 28 prison inmates slain in clashes between rival gangs.

Drug-related violence in Mexico claimed 43 lives on Monday, including 28 prison inmates slain in clashes between rival gangs and 12 police officers killed in an ambush, officials said.

The early morning ambush took place in the western town of Zitacuaro as a group of uniformed police was heading by car to Mexico City. Ten police officers and several assailants were killed in the shootout, Michoacan's Public Security Ministry said. Two others died from their wounds in hospital.

Soldiers and police launched a manhunt for the surviving attackers, who remain at large, the ministry said. Police said the attackers removed their dead and wounded from the scene before fleeing, but did not link the shooting to any drug cartel in the region. Yet Michoacan is the headquarters of the notorious "La Familia" cartel, known as one of Mexico's deadliest drug-trafficking organizations, with a history of violent confrontations with federal police.

La Familia, said to be the top producer of synthetic drugs in Mexico, unleashed a similar bloody assault against police last July that left 16 officers dead.

In another recent attack, the drug cartel kidnapped 12 federal police officers, decapitated them and dumped their bodies on a busy highway.