Dozens killed in Mexico drug violence

MEXICO CITY - At least 14 people were killed in three separate attacks in bars in northern Mexico, authorities said Sunday.

In Coahuila state, across the border from Texas, nine men died late Saturday when gunmen opened fire inside two bars in separate attacks, state prosecutors said in a statement. Eleven others were wounded.

Assailants killed another five men late Saturday in a bar in the cartel-plagued border city of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state prosecutors' spokesman Arturo Sandoval said.

In other drug violence in Mexico, at least 14 people were killed in three Pacific coast states.

Police in the resort city of Acapulco found the bodies of four men inside a trash container, all had been shot and three of them had their throats slit. The body of a fifth man was found alongside a highway, prosecutors in the state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, said in a Sunday statement.

Also Sunday, soldiers killed four alleged drug traffickers in a clash in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, the Defense Department said in a statement.

The troops were on patrol along a river in the town of Santiago, Nayarit when assailants opened fire, the department said.

Soldiers seized a car, 12 fire weapons, 12 grenades and radio communication equipment, it said.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan, police found the bodies of five men in different areas of the capital of Morelia, state prosecutors said in a statement.

All the victims had been shot in the head, prosecutors said.

More than 35,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against the country's drug gangs shortly after taking office in December 2006.