25 dead in Mexico military clash with gang members: reports

9/02/2010 08:30:37 PM

MEXICO CITY – A clash between soldiers and gang members near Mexico's northern city of Monterrey left 25 dead, local media reported Thursday.

The soldiers had stormed a training camp set up by suspected drug gang members in a northern border region which has seen an escalation of violence in recent months, including the massacre of 72 migrants last week, reports said.

The shootout occurred in the town of General Tervino, in Nuevo Leon state.

It was unclear if there were military victims among 25 killed, a Defense Ministry spokesman told the online edition of El Universal daily.

Officials blame a spate of shootouts, kidnappings and killings in the northeastern states of Nuevo Leon and neighboring Tamaulipas on disputes between the Gulf gang and its former allies the Zetas.

A wounded Ecuadoran survivor of the migrant massacre in Tamaulipas, which was discovered last week, pointed the finger at the Zetas.

Shortly after that gruesome discovery, a police officer and an investigator on the case disappeared, a local mayor was shot dead, and several explosives attacks rocked a local television network and a police station.

President Felipe Calderon is under increasing fire for his military crackdown on organized crime launched three and a half years ago, which has been accompanied by a spike in violence.

"It's an ever more bloody war between organized crime groups fighting for territory, markets and routes," Calderon said in an annual address Thursday.

More than 28,000 people have died in suspected drug violence since 2006, according to official figures.