Suspected drug cartel hit men have gunned down three people who worked at the U.S. consulate in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez.
A consulate employee and her husband, both U.S. citizens, were shot dead in their car and the husband of a Mexican employee at the consulate was also killed in a drive-by shooting.
Consulate employee Lesley Enriquez, 35, was shot in the head and her husband Arthur Redelfs suffered wounds in his neck and arm.
Their one-year-old baby was found unharmed in the back seat of their car.
President Barack Obama said he was ‘deeply saddened and outraged’ by the killings.
The couple’s one-year-old daughter, now orphaned, is cradled by a policewoman in the wake of the shootings which killed her parents
Hit squad: A soldier patrols near the car in Ciudad Juarez in which a U.S. consulate worker and her husband were shot dead on Saturday
The gunmen are suspected of belonging to a gang of hit men tied to the Juarez drug cartel.
The deaths come during a surge in bloodshed along Mexico’s border with Texas and deal a significant blow to the U.S’s ongoing battle to fight the border drugs trade.
U.S. government employees in Ciudad Juarez and five other consulates in northern Mexico have been told to send family members out of the country over concerns about rising drug violence.
Killed: Arthur Redelfs, 34, was killed along with his wife Lesley Enriquez, who worked at the U.S. consulate. Their one-year-old baby was unharmed
The three victims were killed in drive-by shootings in two separate attacks on Saturday afternoon.
President Obama was ‘deeply saddened and outraged’ by the killings, the White House said.
‘He extends his condolences to the families and condemns these attacks on consular and diplomatic personnel serving at our foreign missions,” the statement said.
‘In concert with Mexican authorities, we will work tirelessly to bring their killers to justice.’
The body of Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, 37, was found in his car in another part of Ciudad Juarez. His two children, aged four and seven, were also wounded in the shooting and are being treated in hospital.
Family members of consulate staff in Tijuana, Nogales, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros are being advised to leave the area. U.S. citizens are also being told to avoid unnecessary travel in the Mexican states of Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua.
Fred Lash, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said the three people had been at the same party before the attacks. It is unclear if they were specifically targeted.
A statement from the White House said: ‘President Obama extends his condolences to the families and condemns these attacks on consular and diplomatic personnel serving at our foreign missions.
‘In concert with Mexican authorities, we will work tirelessly to bring their killers to justice.’
Drug violence: Staff at the U.S. consulate gather outside the building in Ciudad Juarez after two fatal drive-by shootings
Mexico is battling with a drug war that has seen some 18,000 people killed since 2006.
Ciudad Juarez is a major area of conflict between Mexican drug cartels over trafficking routes to the U.S. More than 2,600 people were murdered there in drug-related violence last year.
U.S. officials briefly closed the consulate in Reynosa after an outbreak of violence, which Mexican authorities have blamed on the breaking of an alliance between two drug gangs.
President Felipe Calderon said he ‘expresses his indignation’ and ‘his sincerest condolences to the families of the victims’.
The bodies of men shot dead during running gunfights between rival drug gangs on the streets of Acapulco In Mexico. At least 35 people were shot dead during the confrontations this weekend alone
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: ‘These appalling assaults on members of our own State Department family are, sadly, part of a growing tragedy besetting many communities in Mexico.
‘They underscore the imperative of our continued commitment to work closely with the government of President Calderon to cripple the influence of trafficking organisations at work in Mexico.
‘This is a responsibility we must shoulder together.’
It comes after 13 people were killed in an outbreak of drug-related violence in the southern Mexican resort of Acapulco.
Acapulco, one of the country’s biggest tourist resorts, has been the scene of a bloody turf war between rival drug cartels in recent years.
Turf war: Ciudad Juarez is a hotspot for drug cartel violence. More than 2,600 people were murdered in drug-related violence there in 2009
The office of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s office said he ‘expresses his indignation’ and ‘his sincerest condolences to the families of the victims’ of Saturday’s attack.
Calderon ‘reiterated the Mexican government’s unwavering compromise to resolve these grave crimes,’ his office said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said ‘these appalling assaults on members of our own State Department family are, sadly, part of a growing tragedy besetting many communities in Mexico.’
‘They underscore the imperative of our continued commitment to work closely with the Government of President Calderon to cripple the influence of trafficking organizations at work in Mexico,’ she added.
‘This is a responsibility we must shoulder together.’
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So what it does tell to the stupid, dumbass, careless washington criminals? STOP bombing Afghanistan, Iraq and attack mexico NOW! A military operation overturn the mexican government and impose a 1-year military dictatorship with borders sealed is urgent.
The washington criminals never look at the best interests of the people in America, but only for the interests of their paychecks.