Wow Sonora has been pretty calm since the election but this is interesting in a bad way (bombs at gas stations?
Violence grows in Nogales, Sonora, northern Mexico
Police and military personnel in Nogales, Sonora, investigate after a home was riddled with bullets and gunmen left behind a live grenade. Photo by Cesar Barron | Special to the Nogales International
By the Nogales International
Published: Thursday, December 10, 2009 11:23 AM MST
Growing violence in northern Mexico culminated Wednesday in a mysterious attack on a home in mid-town Nogales, Sonora.
Gunmen shot up the house and lobbed a hand grenade that did not explode. The attackers abandoned a late-model Chevrolet Tahoe after it became stuck. Inside was a portable radio and on the ground next to the Tahoe was a cap with the insignia of Mexico’s Federal Investigations Agency.
Shortly after 1 p.m., police received reports of gunshots. Local and state lawmen arrived with troops from the Mexican army. They found the Tahoe near the bullet-riddled home. A few feet away, a live grenade was on the ground and eventually was removed by a military bomb squad. There were no reports of injuries.
On Tuesday, two men in their early- to mid-30s were shot and killed with AK-47s as they slept at a hotel on the south side of town. Other gun battles were reported throughout the city.
Elsewhere in Sonora, grenade attacks occurred in Navojoa, Hermosillo and Cananea.
In Cananea, about 50 miles southeast of Nogales, a hotel maintenance man opened a door to a room that had been booby-trapped. He suffered life-threatening injuries and was taken to a hospital in Hermosillo, according to Nuevo Dia newspaper.
On Monday, a man pulled up to a gas station in Cananea in a late-model vehicle and requested 200 pesos of fuel. The man left and when an attendant opened the car door, the vehicle —apparently booby-trapped — exploded.
Nuevo Dia reported that the attendant was in guarded condition. Investigators found a dozen more grenades in the back seat of the vehicle. There were explosions also reported at two banks in the same town.
Drug traffic cartels are known to use grenades in battles with rivals and police, but there was no official indication that the attacks were linked to the violence that has plagued Mexico.
Compiled by staff and from Mexico newspaper reports and Radio XENY in Nogales, Sonora.
