Monterrey – Mob gunmen killed eight people in two separate attacks in this northern Mexican metropolis and two more at a bar in the western city of Guadalajara.
In the worst incident, assailants with heavy-caliber weapons opened fire Monday at people standing on a corner in Monterrey, killing three men and two women and leaving three other men wounded, a spokesman for the Nuevo Leon state Security Council told Efe.
The victims had apparently just gotten off a bus, the spokesman said.
Mexican marines cordoned off the area and began a search for the shooters, aided by a helicopter.
Separately, men armed with AK-47 assault rifles gunned down brothers Benito, Juan and Heriberto Cardoza Vazquez inside a business in south Monterrey, Nuevo Leon's capital and the headquarters of some of Mexico's leading corporations.
Authorities say a group calling itself New Federation is responsible for more than 20 homicides so far this year in Nuevo Leon. The faction targets purported members of the Los Zetas drug cartel, currently embroiled in a turf war with other criminal organizations in northeastern Mexico.
Across the country in Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city, gunmen at a bar killed two musicians who declined to keep playing past closing time.
The norteño band La Excelencia had just finished their performance at the Vida Divina club in the wee hours of Monday when four intoxicated men carrying weapons demanded that the musicians continue playing.
After the group agreed to play two more songs, the club owner called a halt, informing La Excelencia and the remaining patrons that it was closing time.
Minutes later, the four gunmen detonated a grenade inside the bar and opened fire on the band.
Killed were the group's leader, 22-year-old Jonathan Martinez, and bandmate Gustavo Alejandro, 35. A club patron was wounded and taken to the Western Medical Center in Guadalajara.
Witnesses were unable to provide any description of the vehicles the aggressors used in their getaway.
Violence associated with the drug war has claimed more than 34,000 lives in Mexico since December 2006.
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