Drug hitmen kill Mexican mayor

MEXICO. Suspected drug hitmen killed the mayor of a small town in northern Mexico Sunday in a region where two car bombs exploded last week and the bodies of 72 murdered migrant workers were found.

Mayor Marco Antonio Leal was shot dead by gunmen in SUVs as he drove through his rural municipality of Hidalgo near the Gulf of Mexico in Tamaulipas state, the local attorney general's office said.

Leal's Four year-old daughter was slightly wounded in the attack, a spokesman said. It was not immediately clear why Leal was targeted, but Tamaulipas has become one of Mexico's bloodiest drug flashpoints since the start of the year as rival hitmen from the Gulf cartel and its former armed wing, the Zetas, fight over smuggling routes into the United States

President Felipe Calderon, who is facing rising calls for a change in strategy in his cartel war, condemned the attack and vowed to continue his fight against drug gangs.

"This cowardly crime and the reprehensible violent events recently in the region strengthen our commitment to continue fighting the criminal groups that seek to terrify families (in Tamaulipas)," Calderon said in a statement.

Monterrey, Monday , Reuters