Attackers lob grenade at Mexican police station

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

MEXICO CITY, Feb 6 (Reuters) Unknown attackers lobbed a hand grenade at a police station in the western state of Guerrero yesterday amid President Felipe Calderon's crackdown on drug traffickers.

No one was killed in the 4 a.m. attack but the grenade caused slight damage to the police station in the town of Tecpan de Galeana, 60 miles 96 km west of the tourist resort of Acapulco, local media reported.

Acapulco has been hit by a brutal war between rival drug gangs that have staged shootouts in broad daylight near tourist areas.

There were 190 drug gang-related deaths in January, only a handful less than a year ago, despite an army-led crackdown on feuding cartels ordered by Calderon.

A man's chopped-up body was discovered in Acapulco dumped in plastic garbage bags, police said on Sunday. It was the latest grisly killing in the once-glamourous resort.

Nine months ago the decapitated heads of two policemen were left on the wall of a government building in Acapulco in a warning to authorities from drug hitmen.

Faced with a surge in drug violence that saw more than 2,000 gang-related killings across Mexico last year, Calderon moved swiftly after taking office on December 1 to send out troops to hunt down cartels.

Thousands of soldiers, working with federal and state police, are manning road blocks in the states of Michoacan, Baja California, Nuevo Leon and Guerrero.

Four major traffickers have been extradited to the United States to face trial there.

Acapulco has lost much of its 1950s glamour but remains popular with US students during spring break. No tourists have been killed in the Acapulco violence.

REUTERS AKJ VV1141

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