Drug gang gunfight kills 29

A GUN battle between rival drug gangs in western Mexico resulted in 29 bullet-ridden bodies in fake military uniforms being left on a road and inside vehicles, the army said yesterday.

The bodies, all male, were found scattered around 14 pick-up trucks and sports utility vehicles, two of which had bulletproofing.

Television images of the scene, near the town of Ruiz, showed what appeared to have been a convoy of cartel vehicles that had been ambushed or engaged by another column of gunmen on a stretch of rural highway. Military-style boots, bulletproof vests, hand grenades and thousands of rounds of ammunition were also found at the scene.

The army said two suspects wounded in the battle were found at the scene.

Nayarit state police had originally said that officers responding to reports of a kidnapping found four wounded men at the scene of the shootout. It was unclear if the two reported by the army were included in, or additional to, that figure.

The army said in a statement that around the same time, on Wednesday, soldiers engaged in a shootout with armed suspects in a town about 35 miles north of Ruiz. Two suspects, a man and a woman, were killed. It was unclear whether the two incidents were related.

Nayarit and the nearby states of Michoacan and Zacatecas have become battlegrounds for drug cartels fighting for control of the area.

The Sinaloa drug cartel, Mexico's most powerful, has long been active in Nayarit, but it has recently been challenged by remnants of the Beltran Leyva cartel and the Zetas.

In Michoacan, officials said more than 700 people fled their villages amid fighting between rival drug traffickers, which appeared to be unrelated to the Nayarit conflict. A local official said the villagers were given refuge at five shelters.

It is at least the second time a large number of rural residents have been displaced by drug violence in Mexico.

In November, about 400 people in the northern border town of Ciudad Mier took refuge in the neighbouring city of Ciudad Aleman following cartel gun battles. That shelter has since been closed and most have returned to their homes.

Drug violence has been on the rise in Nayarit, a Pacific Coast state known for its surfing. Last October, gunmen killed 15 people at a car wash in the capital, Tepic, an attack that police said bore the characteristics of organised crime. And the bodies of 12 murder victims - eight of them partially burned - were found on a Nayarit dirt road a year ago. Officials have not identified the gangs fighting there.

More than 34,000 people have died in Mexico since the country's president, Felipe Calderon, announced a crackdown on the drug cartels in 2006.