Mexico Deploys 1,500 Extra Soldiers To Border City

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) – Mexico has deployed 1,500 more troops to Ciudad Juarez following a surge in homicides in the border city related to the drug trade.

Joint security operation spokesman Enrique Torres Valadez says the extra troops will plan operations Sunday and begin patrolling the city Monday.

A total of 2,500 troops arrived in Ciudad Juarez by land and air Saturday night, but 1,000 of them are relieving soldiers rotating out of the city for a break, Torres said.

Killings in the city across the border from El Paso, Texas, had declined to about one per day after the army sent more than 5,000 troops there in March to patrol the streets.

But officials say killings have risen again to an average of between eight and nine per day.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)