Four Mexican soldiers killed and nine others injured after mine explodes in drug cartel camp
Disturbing bodycam footage captured the moment soldiers tried to save the lives of four soldiers killed at a drug cartel campsite in the western Mexican state of Michoacán.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed their deaths Friday during his daily news conference in Mexico City.
The leftist leader said army soldiers were carrying out a surveillance mission in the town of Aguililla on Thursday and were searching a field when an improvised explosive device hidden in the bushes went off.
One of the soldiers died immediately and the other three died later from their wounds.
Nine soldiers were injured in the ambush.
Four Mexican army soldiers were killed and nine others were injured after an improvised explosive device went off at a camp in Aguililla, Mexico, on Thursday.
Soldiers try to rescue one of their troops during an attack in the western Mexican state of Michoacán on Thursday
They heard about a camp and went to the camp, as far as they could go, they did it in vehicles, then they walked, but on the way back they did not take the same path, but a different path,” López Obrador said.
“We deeply regret this crime,” he added. “It’s weighing on me.”
Security cabinet sources told Mexican newspaper El Universal that the soldiers were attacked with gunfire and drones equipped with explosives as they toured an area located between the Aguililla villages of El Montoso and El Terrenatillo.
The soldiers worked in an area dominated by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
According to Radio Formula, four army soldiers and a helicopter came under fire in El Terrenatillo on Friday.
The Mexican military inspected a cartel’s campsites and was reportedly attacked with gunfire and explosive-laden drones
The plane made an emergency landing. It is not known if any of the soldiers were injured.
The deaths come as armed violence has surged in Mexico under López Obrador.
Under his ‘hugs, no bullets’ crime policy, at least 180,000 murders have been recorded since he took office in December 2018.
Brutal killings of police and military have become a common occurrence.
Last week, two local candidates for the upcoming June 2 elections were gunned down within hours of each other in another Michoacán city.
The elections are on track to become one of the most violent in Mexican history.