Six killed in gun battle in area being searched for David Hartley's body
by Sergio Chapa
Posted: 10.08.2010 at 7:10 PMUpdated: 10.08.2010 at 10:20 PM
Sergio Chapa
Sergio is KGBT's Interactive Manager and a reporter for VALLEYCENTRAL.COM.

While three congressmen held a Thursday afternoon press conference about border security, Mexican soldiers were engaged in a gun battle that left six people dead on the other side of the Rio Grande.

Mexico's Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA) is reporting that the gun battle in the same area being searched for the body of missing American David Hartley.

The SEDENA reported that the battle took place near the rural town of Barriales around 3 p.m. Thursday.

Army officials said that a military aircraft was performing aerial reconnaissance work in the area when pilots spotted a suspicious truck hiding in the brush.

The military aircraft went down for a closer look but came under fire.

The SEDENA reported that Mexican soldiers returned fire and killed six men who were protecting some kind of clandestine construction project.

Authorities also reported that a Mexican soldier was also wounded in the battle.

Mexican soldiers reporting seizing ammunition and the following other items:

- 7 Assault Rifles
- 38 clips
- 1 Rocket Launcher
- 1 Dodge Ram Truck

Barriales is located near the ruins of Guerrero Viejo, a Spanish colonial town that is seasonally flooded by waters from Falcon Lake.

David Hartley's wife Tiffany told American officials she and her husband were touring the flooded ruins back on September 30th when they came under attack by pirates on boats.

Tiffany Hartley said her husband was killed in the attack but she managed to escape to the American side of the lake.

Hartley's body remains missing more than a week after the attack.

The Rio Grande Valley's three congressmen held a press conference on the American side of the lake in Zapata on Thursday afternoon.

The congressmen, politicians and law enforcement officials discussed the Hartley case and border security.

U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) said during a Thursday afternoon press conference that the Mexican government has soldiers, boats and a helicopter seraching for Hartley's body.

But Cueller said the search is complicated by the fact that the area is lucrative drug trafficking route controlled by the Zetas drug cartel.

Cuellar said Mexican search crews had to stop looking for Hartley's body on Wednesday evening because of threats of an ambushed by drug traffickers.

During the press conference, Cuellar described the area where Hartley went missing as a "hornet's nest" for the Zetas drug cartel.

The gun battle in Barriales took place just at the press conference with Cuellar and the others was coming to an end.
http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=523516

RELATED:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-214843.html