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Violence jumps on US-Mexican border
Thu Feb 9, 2006 4:57 PM ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attacks on American border patrol agents along the U.S. border with Mexico have jumped more than 100 percent in the last year, Homeland Security officials said on Thursday.

"There has been an over-100 percent increase in the last fiscal year in border violence aimed at our Border Patrol agents, and that ranges from gunshots fired across the border to rocks being thrown, sometimes flaming rocks," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar told a news conference there were 778 assaults against Border Patrol officers in the last fiscal year. So far this fiscal year, which began in October, there have been 192 attacks, he said. He did not give the previous year's figure.

He showed a video clip of border patrol agents being pinned against the fence marking the border as people on the Mexican side threw huge rocks over the fence.

Chertoff said the increased violence was due in part to heightened pressure on criminal organizations that operate around the border area.

"But if they think they're going to back us down or chase us away, the answer to that is 'no'," he said.

"Our Border Patrol is properly trained, they have rules of engagement.

They are entitled to defend themselves. They will defend themselves. We will support them in applying these rules of engagement."

Chertoff said the U.S. government was working with Mexico to deal with the border violence.

Last month the U.S. envoy to Mexico accused the Mexican government of failing to control crime and said the rampant crime near the border "highlights the inability of the Mexican government to police its own communities."

Border violence in Mexico has increased since President Vicente Fox declared a war on drug cartels a year ago.