Americans ambushed in Mexico

An attack by drug cartel gunmen in Mexico on Monday killed six children and three women, all of them U.S. citizens. The attacker ambushed and opened fire on three SUVs carrying the families along a dirt road in northern Mexico. Eight children, five with bullets wounds and injuries, escaped the vehicles alive. The victims lived in La Mora, Mexico, with other members of a religious sect that broke away from Mormonism.

How has Mexico responded? Police have arrested one suspect in connection with the murders. The attack highlighted the increasing bravado of cartel gunmen and uncontrollable drug-related violence. Investigators found more than 200 shell casings at the scene. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador turned down U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer for help, saying he does not believe using “force, blood, and fire will solve the problem.”

Dig deeper: Read Lynde Langdon’s report in The Sift on the sentencing of the notorious Mexican drug lord known as “El Chapo.”