At least 44 people were killed on Friday in a gunfight in western Mexico between government forces and suspected drug gang henchmen, officials said, one of the bloodiest days of violence to shake the country under President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Government officials said two federal police died and one was badly injured in the shootout near the Michoacan state border with Jalisco, a state home to Mexico’s second-biggest city, Guadalajara.
The rest killed at a ranch near the town of Tanhuato were suspected members of the Jalisco New Generation (JNG) cartel, which is based in the neighboring state, the officials said.
One of the officials said federal police received an anonymous tip that armed men had gathered at the ranch and that shooting began after they arrived. Security forces attacked the suspected gang members by air and by land, he added.
Among the weapons recovered from the scene by police were rocket launchers and powerful guns, the official said.
The cartel has killed at least 20 police since March and on May 1 its gunmen shot down an army helicopter in southwestern Jalisco, killing six military personnel.
