7 agents die in Mexico drug shootout
In Mexico, the drug violence continues. This dispatch from The Times' Ken Ellingwood reports that seven Mexican federal agents looking for an arms cache were killed early Tuesday in a shootout in the western state of Sinaloa.
The agents came under fire when they went to search a home in Culiacan, the state capital. Four agents were wounded.
"The state has registered more than 200 killings this year, mainly as a result of a vicious power struggle within one of Mexico's biggest drug gangs, the so-called Sinaloa cartel.
"Mexican President Felipe Calderon dispatched 2,000 soldiers and federal agents to Sinaloa two weeks ago, the latest major deployment in his government's 18-month-old drive against organized crime."
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
