Police Attacked CIA Officers, Ambush Likely: Sources Ioan Grillo - Reuters
go to original August 30, 2012

TRES MARIAS, Mexico - Mexican federal police shot and wounded two CIA operatives last week, security sources said, in an apparently deliberate attack that could hurt U.S.-Mexico cooperation in their war against drug cartels.

The two experienced officers were just south of the capital on their way to a Mexican Marine base on Friday, working with local authorities on a training mission, when federal police riddled their armored van bearing diplomatic plates with bullets.

The men, traveling with a Mexican Marine captain, were wounded and taken to a hospital for treatment, though their injuries were not life-threatening. Their vehicle's tires and rear windshield were shot out.

A dozen federal police officers detained and questioned over the attack have been ordered held in custody for 40 days. In initial statements to federal prosecutors, they claimed they confused the Americans for criminals.

However, witnesses who saw the shooting at a bend in the road outside the small town of Tres Marias told Reuters the gunmen were dressed in plain clothes and pursued the Americans firing from unmarked cars and on foot -- a classic style of gangland hits in Mexico.

"We had no idea at all they were police. They looked like criminals," said one woman who witnessed the incident but asked not to be named for fear of repercussions.

A Mexican government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the evidence suggested gang members and corrupt police had carried out the attack before other police arrived at the scene and prevented the men being killed.

"This was not an accident," the official said.

Read more at Yahoo! News

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