Three Wounded in Grenade Attacks

Hermosillo, Sonora - Three people were wounded in six separate grenade attacks in cities in the Mexican state of Sonora, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The attacks occurred Monday night in the towns of Hermosillo, Cananea and Navojoa, the Sonora state Attorney General's Office said.

In Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, army bomb-squad members deactivated a grenade thrown by unknown assailants at the building of the state Attorney General's Office that failed to explode, AG's office spokesman Jose Larrinaga Talamantes said.

Another grenade, however, damaged the "main entrance and windows on the front of the building" in an attack that left no injuries, Larrinaga Talamantes said.

A grenade was thrown in Navojoa that exploded inside a restaurant on Pesqueira Avenue, wounding three people, who "were reported out of danger," the AG's office said.

At a gas station in the same city, with a population of 170,000 people, a grenade exploded but no one was wounded.

In Cananea, a city of 40,000, three explosions were reported.

A suspicious bag was found at the branch office of a bank in Cananea "whose contents will be checked by army personnel because of suspicions it might contain another explosive device," the AG's office said.

No one was hurt in these attacks, the AG's office said.

Officers from state, municipal and federal police forces with support from the Mexican army were keeping watch Tuesday on places where the incidents were reported, and the corresponding investigations are underway.

A growing number of attacks against police facilities have occurred in recent days, particularly in municipalities in the states of Guanajuato, Guerrero and Nuevo Leon, as well as against state and municipal police officers patrolling the streets.

Homicides related to the activities of organized crime in Mexico this year have now topped 7,000, press reports say.

Categories: Mexican Crime, organized crime