JUAREZ: SOLDIER AMONG 25 SLAIN DURING VIOLENT DAY

In one of the bloodiest days on record in Chihuahua state, 21 people
were killed early Tuesday about 90 miles south of Juarez after several
reported kidnappings and shootouts between Mexican soldiers and the
kidnappers, Mexican officials said.

Chihuahua state police also reported the deaths of four others in
Juarez, for a total of 25 people killed in less than 24 hours.

Enrique Torres, spokes man for Joint Chihuahua Operation, which is
leading the crackdown against drug dealers in the state, said
everything started late Monday when an armed commando began abducting
people from their homes in Villa Ahumada, which is south of Juarez on
the Panamerican Highway.

The kidnappers allegedly picked up a total of nine people, including
police officers, and shot six of them to death at a ranch at El
Vergel, a village between Villa Ahumada and Samalayuca. The military
was called in, set free three of the nine kidnap victims, and pursued
the kidnappers.

Torres said firefights broke out between the soldiers and the
kidnappers in various spots, resulting in 14 kidnappers and one
soldier killed. A second soldier was seriously wounded.

Officials said the bodies were later taken to the Juarez morgue, where
the victims' families had already gathered.

Also Tuesday, Juarez police recovered the bodies of four shooting
victims: two unidentified men in the Jose Maria Morelos neighborhood,
another man identified as Mario Marquez Marquez, 41, in the La Cuesta
neighborhood, and an unidentified man found inside a pickup on Avenida
Tecnologico.

Over Sunday and Monday, authorities reported seven other homicides in
Juarez. On Monday, soldiers removed two live grenades from outside the
Chihuahua state attorney general's offices in Chihuahua City; no one
was injured.

More than 230 people have been killed in Juarez since the beginning of
the year, and authorities have blamed drug violence for most of the
deaths. More than 1,600 people were killed in 2008 in the violence
that has gripped Juarez.

As the violence escalated last year, the Mexican federal government
sent 2,000 soldiers to Juarez and the region to help reduce the
conflict between drug cartels. The soldiers patrolled the streets of
Juarez in a show of force and since then have been involved in drug
busts and fatal shootings.

Last week, soldiers and federal police seized nearly 2 tons of
marijuana. In January, the Mexican army detained two men in connection
with the kidnapping of a maquiladora official. In November, soldiers
made another 2-ton drug seizure. Soldiers fatally shot two men after
the men allegedly shot at the soldiers during a routine road check,
and in September, soldiers shot and killed a robbery suspect.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.