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Ciudad Juarez –  A prosecutor who oversaw investigations in this violent Mexican border city was gunned down Friday outside his home, the Chihuahua state Attorney General's Office said.

Mario Ramon Gonzalez was attacked at 8:20 a.m. while he was on his way to the Ciudad Juarez branch of the state AG's office.

According to the initial investigation, Gonzalez was shot at by gunmen wielding rifles who had arrived at his home in three black vehicles.

Gonzalez's body was found next to his car in the driveway and the area was subsequently cordoned off by dozens of state, municipal and federal police while forensics experts and homicide detectives gathered evidence.

Also in Juarez, three children under the age of 5 were killed when their home caught fire Thursday following a Molotov cocktail attack.

The mother of the three children, who was inside the home at the time of the attack, suffered burns, officials said, adding that dozens of rescue workers were rushed to the scene in a vain attempt to save the youths.

More than 8,500 people have been killed in Ciudad Juarez, located across the border from El Paso, Texas, and dubbed Mexico's murder capital, in the past four years.

Also Thursday, 11 people were killed and three others wounded by suspected cartel gunmen in different parts of the northern city of Monterrey.

The attacks, carried out with assault rifles, lasted less than two hours, Jorge Domene Zambrano - security spokesman for Nuevo Leon state, whose capital is the industrial hub of Monterrey - said.

Domene Zambrano attributed Thursday's attacks to a settling of scores between the rival Gulf and Los Zetas cartels, which are battling for control of the Monterrey "plaza," or drug-smuggling corridor.

All of the attacks had the same characteristics: armed men riding in vehicles firing rounds from assault rifles against men on foot or in other automobiles.

One man was killed inside his vehicle in the first attack, which occurred at 4:07 p.m.; the last attack took place at 5:56 p.m. and left one woman and four men dead and another person wounded.

In other parts of the city, armed men fired gunshots at several young people, killing three and wounding two others.

Later, another two men were found dead of gunshot wounds inside an SUV at a car wash.

Greater Monterrey is the headquarters for leading Mexican companies such as global cement titan Cemex, beverage giant FEMSA and Vitro, one of the world's largest glassmakers.

Hundreds have died violently in Nuevo Leon over the last 13 months amid a turf battle between the Gulf cartel and former allies Los Zetas.

Founded by deserters from an elite Mexican special forces unit, Los Zetas began as the armed wing of the Gulf drug organization, but subsequently went into business for themselves.

Nationwide, violence attributed to Mexico's drug cartels has left more than 35,000 dead since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon took office and deployed army soldiers and Federal Police officers to battle organized crime.