Mexico: Car bomb kills 2 policemen in Tamaulipas state
Two women react after seeing the bodies of two of four men killed on a street in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon state, Mexico, on June 18, 2012. More than 50,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on the drug cartels in December 2006.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico — A car bomb exploded outside the home of a top police official in northern Mexico earlier today, killing two policemen.
The deadly blast in Ciudad Victoria in Tamaulipas state comes just two days after the Mexican presidential election, which largely focused on the issue of increasing drug-related violence across the country.
Seven people, including four policemen, were injured in the explosion outside the home of Tamaulipas Public Safety Secretary Rafael Lomeli, the Associated Press reported.
Spanish news agency EFE, citing a spokesman for the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office, said gunmen tossed a grenade at Lomeli’s residence before detonating a car bomb using a cell phone.
Lomeli was not hurt in the attack, which Tamaulipas state Interior Secretary Morelos Canseco said was revenge for recent arrests of gang members.
Local media reports said the improvised device had been stored in a Ford Focus that had been parked on the street for several days, Reuters reported.
Tamaulipas and neighboring Nuevo Leon state in northeastern Mexico have been a key battleground for drug cartels fighting for control of smuggling routes into the United States.
President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, who was swept into power on a wave of voter frustration at the increasingly violent drug war, has vowed to improve security in Mexico.
More from GlobalPost: Mexico 2012 election coverage