22 die in gunbattle with Mexican troops

MONTERREY, Mexico – A gunbattle between Mexican soldiers and suspected drug cartel members left 22 dead at ranch near the U.S. border, the Defense Department said Thursday.

All the dead were suspected gang members, the department said in a statement. One soldier was injured.

The military said the drug suspects provoked the gunbattle Wednesday morning, opening fire on soldiers conducting reconnaissance patrols at a ranch on the outskirts of Ciudad Mier, a northeastern town about 18 miles south of the border with Texas.

The fighting erupted hours before celebrations started across Mexico for the bicentennial anniversary of its independence from Spain.

It did not disrupt festivities in the main cities in northeastern Mexico, where violence has reached warlike proportions this year amid a split between the Gulf cartel and its former gang of henchmen, the Zetas.

Gunbattles erupt frequently between soldiers and gang members, who sometimes stage road blockades to disrupt military operations or keep security forces from calling in reinforcements.

Across Mexico, drug-gang violence has claimed an unprecedented 28,000 lives since December 2006.

In the border city of Ciudad Juarez, gunmen ambushed two newspaper photographers in their car Thursday, killing one and wounding the other.

Luis Carlos Santiago and Carlos Sanchez, of the Diario de Juarez, were driving to lunch when they were attacked, newspaper director Pedro Torres said. Santiago, 21, was killed and Sanchez was in serious condition, Torres said.

Torres said he did not know why the photographers were targeted.