18 dead in weekend violence in northern Mexico

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MEXICO CITY—A series of gunfights left 18 people dead over the weekend in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which borders the United States and has endured years of drug violence.

Twelve men and two women were killed Sunday in shootings between criminal groups in the towns of Tampico and Madero, on the Gulf of Mexico coast, according to the Tamaulipas Coordination Group, which includes federal and state security forces.

The first shootout took place at the southern end of the state in Madero, where two gunmen killed two men and a woman in the afternoon, the security group said in a statement.

Ten minutes later, authorities in neighboring Tampico found the body of a man with a bullet wound to the head.

Later, a carload of gunmen fired at a man whose body was found in a Madero street. Ten minutes later, another body was found in a street corner of the town.

After nightfall, five men and one woman were killed in front of a fuel station in Tampico. Moments later, another man was gunned down in an ice cream shop.

A 14th body was recovered at 8:05 p.m. in Madero.

The day of bloodshed came one day after a gun battle between soldiers and suspected criminals in the town of Miguel Aleman, which lies at the border with Texas.

Four armed civilians were killed in a skirmish after they opened fire on a hotel, the state prosecutor’s office said.

Tamaulipas has been the scene of a turf war between the Zetas and Gulf cartels, former allies that have battled for control of lucrative drug trafficking routes to the United States since they split up in 2010.

Some 80,000 people have been killed in drug violence in Mexico since 2006.