Eight Slain in Violent Ciudad Juarez

A police commander was among eight people slain in this Mexican border metropolis in the last 24 hours, authorities said Tuesday.

Gunmen traveling in at least two vehicles mounted an attack early Tuesday on a group of municipal cops, killing Pablo Soria and wounding five of his subordinates, Ciudad Juarez police department spokesman Adrian Sanchez said.

Five civilians were also hurt in the incident.

Four people abducted Monday night outside a home in Juarez were found dead hours later in another part of the city, sources in the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office said.

The victims, described only as three men and woman ranging in age from 19 to 50, were discovered in the yard of an abandoned house, the sources said.

A 35-year-old woman who appeared to have been sexually assaulted was found dead at an intersection in this city just across the border from El Paso, Texas, while two men were gunned down earlier Monday, the state AG’s office said.

Juarez, Mexico’s murder capital, suffered 1,974 homicides last year, down from 3,115 murders in 2010, according to statistics from the Chihuahua AG’s office.

The city has been the scene in the past few years of a brutal territorial struggle between the Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels, part of a larger conflict involving criminals and security forces that has claimed 50,000 lives since December 2006.

Source: EFE