Mexico's Acapulco resort shootout leaves 18 dead
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A shootout between drug gangs and Mexican soldiers has killed 18 people in the beach resort of Acapulco, according to the Mexican army.
Roughly 3,000 shots and 50 explosions marked the four-hour battle late Saturday that left 16 gunmen and two soldiers dead. Nine other people were wounded, including three bystanders.
The hours-long gunfight Saturday night took place in a seaside neighborhood of homes and cut-rate hotels that is mainly frequented by Mexicans and sits several miles from the main strip of tourist complexes. Some guests were reportedly evacuated from nearby hotels, but no tourists were known to have been caught in the crossfire.
The battle erupted after soldiers received a tip that a group of armed men were gathered at a gated house in a seedy section of Acapulco.
Several gunmen tried to flee but crashed their car into a military Hummer that was blocking the gate. At one point, more armed men with grenades arrived to reinforce the men in the house.
The gunmen, suspected members of one of Mexico's major cartels, Beltran Leyva cartel, based in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, threw as many as 50 grenades at the advancing soldiers, and both sides fired thousands of rounds from assault rifles.
After the battle ended, soldiers found at the house nearly 50 guns, two grenade launchers, 3,500 rounds of ammunition, luxury cars -- and four bound and gagged state police officers who said they had been kidnapped earlier.