Mexican drug battle leaves 28 dead

[bemildred]

Fierce fighting among apparent rival drug gangs in western Mexico has left 28 people dead on a highway, while in a nearby state more than 700 people fled villages that have become battlegrounds.

The violence, which appeared to be unrelated, escalated on Wednesday in the western states of Nayarit and Michoacán, where drug cartels have been warring over territory.

Police in Nayarit were initially responding to a complaint of a kidnapping by a group of armed men who escaped on a federal highway near the town of Ruiz, when they heard a report of a shootout, according to the state prosecutor's office.

They found 28 men lying dead and four others wounded, as well as bullet casings from high-powered weapons and 10 abandoned vehicles.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/26/mexican-drug-war-western-states