At least 23 people killed in Mexican border city

MEXICO CITY — A state official says that 23 people have been killed in an explosion of drug-cartel violence in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, with the killers hanging nine of the bodies from a bridge and leaving 14 decapitated bodies in an abandoned vehicle.

The Tamaulipas state official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to provide the information. The city across from Laredo, Texas has been torn by a war between the Zetas cartel, a group formed by former Mexican special-forces soldiers, and their former allies in the Gulf Cartel.

Fourteen mutilated bodies were found in a vehicle left in the city center last month.