Mexico gunmen kill twelve police

Twelve police officers were killed as the result of an ambush by gunmen in Guerrero, a state in the south of Mexico, authorities confirmed yesterday. The police officers were examining the area to find the bodies of ten individuals, whose separated heads have previously been discovered, at the time of the attack.

According to Arturo Martinez, speaking on behalf of the state police force of Guerrero, six of the policemen killed in the attack were local, while the other six were working for the state. In the attack, which occurred in the city of Teloloapan Sunday, an additional nine police experienced injuries for which they were hospitalised, BBC News Online reported. Eleven officers involved in the incident experienced wounds, according to The Associated Press.

Martinez explained that the officers, who were occupying six police vehicles between them, were searching for the bodies of three females and seven males after their separated heads were abandoned and discovered at a slaughterhouse in Teloloapan. Amongst the severed heads, threats directed at La Familia Michoacana, a drug-related business located in neighbouring state Michoacán, were discovered.

Guerrero is a state known for containing plantations of opium poppies and cannabis, as well as violence related to drug cartels. In excess of 47,000 deaths have been recorded across the whole of Mexico since current President Felipe Calderón commenced the Drug 'War' in December 2006.

Pope Benedict XVI has a visit to the country scheduled for Friday. According to BBC News Online, comment about violence relating to drug businesses in Mexico is anticipated from him.