‘Hit teams’ take out US consular staff in Mexico
WASHINGTON — Suspected drug cartel "hit teams" gunned
down an American consular employee and her husband in a Mexican border city and
killed a co-worker's Mexican husband in a separate attack, a US official said
Sunday.
The victims -- two Americans and a Mexican -- came under
fire in separate locations as they were driving Saturday through Ciudad Juarez
after earlier attending the same social event, the official said, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
The killings marked an ominous turn in the drug violence
wracking northern Mexico, and prompted the State Department to announce that
Americans working at six US consulates in the border area could send their
families away.
President Barack Obama said he was "deeply saddened and
outraged by the news of the brutal murders," said National Security Council
spokesman Mike Hammer.
The victims came under fire in separate locations after
attending the same social event earlier in the day, the US official said,
speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Suspected drug cartel hit teams fired on locally employed
staff, Consulate General Juarez, in their privately owned vehicles," the
official said.
"The attacks resulted in three fatalities -- two American
citizens and one Mexican citizen," he said.
The victims included a US woman employed by the consulate's
American citizens services section who was with her American husband and infant
daughter when they came under fire, the official said.
The infant, who was in the back seat, survived the attack
unharmed, but the woman and her husband were killed, he said.
In the second attack, a Mexican employee of the consulate
was following her husband and two children in a separate car, when her husband's
vehicle came under fire, killing him and wounding the two children, the official
said.
"Both families had attended the same social event earlier
in the afternoon off-post away from the consulate," the US official said. "It
has not been determined if the victims were specifically targeted."
Shortly after the killings were disclosed by the White
House, the State Department issued a travel warning for Mexico.
It said Americans working in consulates in the northern
cities of Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros
were authorized to send family members home until April 12 because of security
concerns.
The departure authorization only affect relatives of US
government personnel in those cities, the statement said.
The travel warning said that due to the "recent violent
attacks," US citizens were urged to "delay unnecessary travel to parts of
Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua states."
"While millions of US citizens safely visit Mexico each
year ... violence in the country has increased," the State Department said.
"Drug cartels and associated criminal elements have
retaliated violently against individuals who speak out against them or whom they
otherwise view as a threat to their organizations," it read.
The State Department travel warning was issued "coupled
with the increase of violence in that northern area," said Department spokesman
Fred Lash.
"It's not an ordered departure, it's up to them if they
want to come out or not," said Lash told AFP.
Ciudad Juarez, population 1.3 million, is a major hub for
smuggling illegal drugs into the United States. It is directly across the border
from El Paso, Texas.
More than 2,600 people were murdered in Ciudad Juarez in
2009 in drug-related violence.
The war between rival drug cartels to control major border
crossing points, as well as the government's attempt to crackdown on the
cartels, has killed more than 15,000 people across Mexico over the last three
years, according to government figures.
The State Department warning said that some of the recent
clashes "have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic
weapons and grenades."
"Large firefights have taken place in towns and cities
across Mexico, but occur mostly in northern Mexico," the statement read. "During
some of these incidents, US citizens have been trapped and temporarily prevented
from leaving the area."
More than 60 people were killed over the weekend in Mexico,
including 38 in the southern state of Guerrero, Mexican officials said.