A total of 10 individuals were killed including a top state police official in ongoing gunfights between Mexican security forces and armed suspects in the northern border state of Tamaulipas, according to official and government news accounts.

According to a news release posted on the website of the Tamaulipas state government, an armed encounter took place Monday in Ciudad Victoria, the state capital of Tamaulipas near the intersection of calles 42and Ocampo in Altavista colony at around 1900 hrs. According to the news release, federal security forces had been requested at the location by Policia Estatal Acreditable against a number of armed suspects who had been detected in the area, sparking an exchange of gunfire.

The report stressed that automatic rifles were used by the armed suspects. Four armed suspects and one state police official were killed. Among the federal security forces three Policia Militar and one Mexican marine were wounded in the encounter.

The police official who was killed was identified as Salvador de Haro Munoz, director of investigation for the Tamaulipas state Secretaria de Seguridad Publica del Estado (SSPE).

Three of the dead armed suspects were identified as Hector Heraclio Silva, Daniel Camarillo and Cristian Giovanni de la Sota Gallego. Five more suspects were detained at the scene, and were identified as Oscar Eliud de la Sota Gallegos, Abraham Camarillo Baltazar, Esteban Ruiz Leija, Karina Nayely Hernändez Guevara and Mayte Candelaria Ruiz Leija.

In border cities in Tamaulipas, five more armed suspects were killed by Mexican security forces in two separate incidents Monday evening, according to an official news account.

A Policia Federal road patrol in Reynosa was fired on by armed suspects who were traveling aboard a Ford Crown Victoria initiating a pursuit, which ended at a shopping center the intersection of Bulevar Hidalgo and Avenida El Pasito.

Four armed suspects were killed in that encounter as they tried to escape, the fourth found inside the vehicle. Two of the suspects who died were identified as Jorge Aaron Guerra Ontiveros, 22, and Jose Alejandro Perez Guerra, 28.

Meanwhile in Matamoros, one armed suspect was killed in an armed encounter at around 1100 hrs Monday. A Mexican naval infantry road patrol was fired on by armed suspects who were aboard a Chevrolet van, and then fled the scene. The pursuit by the marine patrol ended on Lauro del Villar highway near Ciudad Industrial, where the driver of the van crashed the vehicle into a tree.

According to the report, the van caught fire because a quantity of gasoline in a plastic container caught fire. One armed suspect died at the scene while the other four escaped into the bush. The report said the gasoline was stolen.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com


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