Gunmen Kill Mexican Army Officer In Bowling Alley

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) – Gunmen killed an army officer and another man in a bowling alley in Ciudad Juarez, a border city that has seen Mexico’s highest levels of drug-related violence in recent years, police said Saturday.

The assailants entered the Bol Bol bowling alley and shot to death army Capt. Alejandro Aranda and his unidentified companion late Friday, said police spokesman Enrique Torres.

Aranda, an administrator of the dining hall in Ciudad Juarez’s military base, was shot eight times, Torres said.

Police did not provide a motive for the attack, but this city across the border from El Paso, Texas, has been gripped by a wave of drug cartel-related killings.

Drug violence has claimed more than 11,000 lives in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006 and launched an offensive against cartels, which responded with unprecedented violence.

Many of the slayings result from battles between rival drug smugglers for lucrative routes into the United States.

In Tijuana, at least three police officers were in critical condition after gunmen opened fire on their patrol cars.

Red Cross official Fernando Esquer said the three were shot Saturday and that their fellow officers are guarding the hospital where they are being treated.

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