At least 5 officers shot dead in attacksBy Sandra Dibble

2:00 a.m. April 28, 2009

TIJUANA — At least five municipal police officers were shot to death last night in different locations in Tijuana, a spokesman for the Baja California Attorney General's Office said. Another five were reportedly wounded; their conditions were not immediately known.

The assailants launched their attacks in five areas shortly after 8 p.m., the Attorney General's Office said, beginning with an assault that appears to have claimed the lives of four officers in eastern Tijuana. Attacks also occurred in other parts of the city, including western Tijuana.

No motives were immediately revealed, but the close timing of the attacks – all within a half-hour – pointed to the likelihood that they are linked.
Heavily armed drug-trafficking gangs have targeted police at all levels of government in recent months.

The attacks have increased under President Felipe Calderón, who has vowed to battle drug groups and has dispatched military troops to help gain control in trafficking hot spots, such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez.
With the latest deaths, Tijuana's 2,200-member police department has registered a dozen fatalities this year. The killings have come amid measures to eradicate corruption in the department, where more than 400 officers have either resigned or been dropped from the force in the past year, authorities said.

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