Shawdesh Desk: Mexican security forces fought an hour-long gun battle Saturday with suspected cartel gunmen in Villa Union, a town in Coahuila state about an hour’s drive southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas, leaving at least 14 people dead, officials said, reports AP.

Coahuila state Government Miguel Riquelme Solis told local media four of the dead were police officers killed in the initial confrontation, and that several municipal workers were missing.

He said the armed group stormed the town of 3,000 residents in a convoy of trucks, attacking local government offices and prompting state and federal forces to intervene. Ten alleged members of the Cartel of the Northeast were killed in the response.
Security forces will remain in the town for several days to restore a sense of calm, the governor said.

“These groups won’t be allowed to enter state territory,” the government of Coahuila said in a statement.

Mexico’s murder rate has increased to historically high levels, inching up by 2% in the first 10 months of the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.