By Al Arabiya with Agencies
Yemeni soldiers marched in a National Day parade watched by the president from behind a bullet-proof glass shield on Tuesday, one day after a suicide bomber killed nearly 100 of their colleagues in an attack on the rehearsal.
Yemen vowed on Monday to fight “terrorism” regardless of the sacrifices as Saudi Arabia will host an international conference on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Yemen.
A somber mood hung over the event, meant to celebrate the 1990 unification of north and south Yemen, but it finished without any repeat of Monday’s bloodshed.
Al-Qaeda has claimed it was behind the bombing that saw a soldier blow himself up in the middle of an army battalion, killing 96 troops and injuring more than 300 others.
“The war on terror will continue until it is completely destroyed regardless of the sacrifices,” Yemen’s President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi said in a statement carried by state news agency Saba.
U.S. very worried
U.S. President Barack Obama said the United States was very worried about the threat posed by an al-Qaeda affiliate and pledged to work with the Yemeni government to crack down on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), blamed for several Yemeni-based attempts to blow up U.S. airliners and cargo planes.
“We are very concerned about al-Qaeda and extremist activity in Yemen,” Obama told reporters at a NATO summit devoted to ensuring that a-Qaeda is not allowed to regroup in another one-time terror haven, Afghanistan, according to AFP.
Obama said there was no doubt that Yemen’s poverty and instability attracted extremists, and added that Washington, which has used drones to take out leaders of AQAP, had a robust counter-terror operation there.
“We’re going to continue to work with the Yemeni government to try to identify AQAP leadership and operations and try to thwart them,” Obama said.
“That’s important for U.S. safety, it’s also important for the stability of Yemen and for the region.”
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said those behind the attack must be brought to justice.
Brutal, terrible and cowardly bombing
The European Union also condemned a “brutal and terrible” bombing.
Earlier, Obama’s counterterrorism chief John Brennan spoke to Yemeni President Hadi who “pledged not to let terrorist acts interfere with Yemen’s peaceful political transition,” a statement said.
French President Francois Hollande condemned “in the strongest terms” the “barbaric” suicide bombing in Yemen.
“France will continue to support the Yemen government and people in their fight against terrorism,” Hollande, who is attending a NATO summit in Chicago, was quoted as saying in a statement released by the Elysee palace in Paris.
“France salutes the courage demonstrated by all those in Yemen fighting against terrorism and expresses, in these tragic circumstances, its full solidarity with the victims of this attack and sends its condolences to their families, whose sorrow it shares,” the statement said.
Britain also slammed the “cowardly” suicide bombing in Yemen and urged leaders to make sure it did not hold back plans for political reform.
Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said he was “deeply saddened” by the attack, and warned it underlined the scale of the security challenge facing the Yemeni government as it seeks to work towards completing political transition.
“This cowardly attack must not be allowed to stall or prevent progress towards the completion of rigorous reform,” he added.
Yemen-based AQAP claimed responsibility for the attack which it said targeted “the defense minister and other leaders of the U.S. war on our people in Abyan” province in the south.
“Even if the defense minister (Mohammed Nasser Ahmed) and his aides escaped this operation, we will not tire… we are in a war to defend our blood which is violated in Abyan, and war only breeds war,” it said in a statement posted on jihadist Internet forums.
Saudi Arabic to host conference on yemen
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia will host an international conference to discuss the economic and humanitarian situation in Yemen, as well as other challenges facing the impoverished country such as al-Qaeda threats, the Huthi rebels and the political transition, Al Arabiya reported.
The U.N. envoy to Yemen Gamal Benomar told Al Arabiya that the international community is concerned over what is happening in Yemen. He added that he will hold a ministerial-level meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh for the “Friends of Yemen” states to evaluate the political process in the country and the obstacles facing it.
Monday’s attack is Sana’a’s most deadly since Hadi took power in February with a pledge to fight al-Qaeda’s growing presence in the country.
Yemen’s army launched an offensive on May 12 to retake al-Qaeda towns and cities held by extremists across Abyan.
The army’s offensive in south Yemen came days after the White House announced that a plot by AQAP to blow up a U.S. airliner had been foiled.
Since the offensive began, 234 people have been killed, according to a tally compiled by AFP, including 158 al-Qaeda fighters, 41 military personnel, 18 local militiamen and 17 civilians.
via Hadi vows to fight ‘terrorism’ as Saudi Arabia hosts int’l conference on Yemen.
Hadi vows to fight ‘terrorism’ as Saudi Arabia hosts int’l conference on Yemen
Posted by Evan Trowbridge on May 22, 2012
http://evantrowbridge.com/2012/05/22/hadi-vows-to-fight-terrorism-as-saudi-arabia-hosts-intl-conference-on-yemen/
Al-Qaeda claims bombing that killed nearly 100 Yemeni soldiers
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) stepped up its war against the Yemeni forces when it carried out a suicide bombing attack on a military parade in the capital Sana’a on Monday , killing almost 100 and wounding about 300 others.
Al-Qaeda affiliated Ansar al-Sharia group issued a statement saying claiming the responsibility for the attack and threatening for more if the Yemeni army does not halt an operation against the terrorist group in the south of the country.
The deadly explosion took place at al-Sabeen square, near the presidential palace, during the rehearsal of parade marking Yemen’s national day, which President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi was due to attend.
The bomber, dressed in military uniform, detonated his explosives in the middle of battalion of soldiers .Witnesses said human remains were scattered across the site of the blast.
Yemen’s defense minister, Mohammed Nasser Ahmed, was present at the time of the explosion but escaped unharmed.
It remains unclear if the parade will take place as planned.
Monday’s attack is most deadly since President Hadi took power in February with a pledge to fight al-Qaeda’s growing presence in the county.
The suicide bombing came10 days into a massive army offensive against al-Qaeda in Yemen’s restive southern Abyan province, where the jihadists have seized control of a string of towns and cities in attacks launched since May last year.
Since the offensive began, 213 people have been killed, according to a tally compiled by AFP, including 147 al-Qaeda fighters, 31 military personnel, 18 local militiamen and 17 civilians.
The offensive followed days after the White House announced that a plot by AQAP to blow up a U.S. airliner had been foiled.
A senior U.S. official told the New York Times that a bomb for the would-be attack was sewn into “custom fit” underwear that would have been difficult to detect even in a careful pat-down at an airport.
It said a double agent spent weeks with AQAP before handing over information allowing the United States to launch a drone strike on May 6 that killed Fahd al-Quso, a senior figure wanted for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.
Quso’s name figured on an FBI list of most wanted terrorists, along with a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.
via Al-Qaeda claims bombing that killed nearly 100 Yemeni soldiers.
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Posted by Evan Trowbridge on May 21, 2012
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Mexican troops capture a top suspect in slayings of 49 – CNN.com
(CNN) — One of the main suspects in the killings of 49 people in northern Mexico received orders from the top leaders of the Zetas cartel, a military official said Monday.
Mexican soldiers escort suspect Daniel de Jesus Elizondo Ramirez, known as “El Loco.”
Daniel de Jesus Elizondo Ramirez hurled a grenade and fired at troops with a rifle as they closed in on him, Brig. Gen. Edgar Luis Villegas told reporters. After his capture Friday outside Monterrey, Mexico, he disclosed details of the brutal slayings, Villegas said.
Elizondo, also known as “El Loco” (“The Madman”), is a local leader of the Zetas drug cartel in Cadereyta, Nuevo Leon, the northern Mexican city where authorities found the decapitated and dismembered bodies abandoned along a highway last week, Villegas said.
via Mexican troops capture a top suspect in slayings of 49 – CNN.com.
Posted by Evan Trowbridge on May 21, 2012
http://evantrowbridge.com/2012/05/21/mexican-troops-capture-a-top-suspect-in-slayings-of-49-cnn-com/
More than 60 killed in Syria despite presence of U.N. monitors
By AL ARABIYA WITH AGENCIES
More than 60 people were killed nationwide in Syria on Sunday, including at least 34 people in central Hama province, which came under heavy army shelling for hours, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
“Thirty-four people were killed under shelling and gunfire in Souran village while it was being raided,” the Britain-based watchdog said, revising up an earlier toll of 16 people killed, including three children.
The bloody violence continues despite the existence of a U.N. mission, whose members were targeted hours earlier with a rocket-propelled grenade in the town of Douma, north of Damascus.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory said “there is no evidence that there were any clashes taking place” in the village of Souran before the deadly shelling took place.
The Syrian Revolution Commission reported that a total of 28 people were killed across the country as deadly violence continued despite the existence of a U.N. observer mission tasked to watch a non-existent ceasefire.
Early on Sunday, a rocket-propelled grenade landed near a team of observers visiting the town of Douma, a northern suburb of Damascus, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.
The head of a Syria ceasefire monitoring mission, Major General Robert Mood, was stopped in a car at an army checkpoint when the bomb detonated in a nearby alleyway.
While there were no reports of casualties, it was an indication of the mounting dangers posed across the country from clashes between Syrian regime troops and armed rebel fighters, which had been witnessed in Douma before the bomb exploded.
Mood and U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous were among the team of observers, the journalist added.
After the observers left the area, a civilian was shot dead in Douma by a sniper, local monitors reported.
The streets of Douma were deserted, and most of its shops were closed, according to AFP. Posters had been torn off the walls and rubbish containers overturned.
Pro- and anti-regime slogans filled the walls of what appeared to be a ghost town. “Douma will not kneel except before God,” read one slogan, while another read “Assad’s soldiers were here.”
“When the observers leave, the armed men will come back to cause trouble,” one soldier told reporters at the scene, in a reference to rebels who have taken up arms over the course of the anti-regime revolt.
In Basra al-Sham city of southern Daraa province, an army defector was killed in an overnight ambush by regime forces, the Observatory said.
In Jisr al-Shughur in northwest Idlib, a flashpoint of unrest, armed men assassinated a Baath party official, the monitor said, amid a marked increase of assassinations targeting people associated with the regime.
“There is definitely an increase in assassinations targeting people associated with the regime, be they officials or pro-regime businessmen,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency by telephone.
The monitoring group also said that fresh demonstrations took place in several areas of northwest Idlib and in Hama calling for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
In Daraa province, demonstrations were also held calling for the release of activist and citizen journalist Mohammed al-Hariri, who according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has been sentenced to death for “high treason.”
The latest demonstrations took place after fierce fighting between regime troops and armed rebels rocked parts of the Syrian capital Damascus overnight, the Observatory said.
“Violent clashes broke out between rebel fighters and regime troops at a checkpoint in Kafr Sousa district,” it added.
The Local Coordination Committees, an anti-regime network of activists on the ground in Syria, said that in the wake of the fighting, Kafr Sousa in the south of the capital saw the “arrival of huge reinforcements” of regime troops.
Clashes also broke out in others parts of southern Damascus, the Observatory said, adding that gunfire had during the night echoed across the city Centre.
On Saturday, 23 people were killed in violence across Syria, the Observatory said.
More than 12,000 people, the majority of them civilians, have died in Syria since an anti-regime revolt broke out in March 2011, according to the monitoring group.
via More than 60 killed in Syria despite presence of U.N. monitors.
Posted by Evan Trowbridge on May 20, 2012
http://evantrowbridge.com/2012/05/20/more-than-60-killed-in-syria-despite-presence-of-u-n-monitors/
Authorities: 2 latest suspects not involved in alleged NATO plot – CNN.com
Chicago (CNN) — Two suspects who appeared in court in Cook County, Illinois, on Sunday are not believed to be part of an alleged terror plot in Chicago during the NATO summit, prosecutors said Sunday.
Instead, charges against the two arose from “related investigations,” authorities said.
Three men had previously been charged in the NATO plot, with authorities saying they planned to target President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters, the home of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and several other law enforcement and financial sites.
On Sunday, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said it had “approved charges against two additional individuals in connection with the ongoing NATO investigation.”
Sebastian Senakiewicz, 24, of Chicago, is charged with falsely making a terrorist threat, prosecutors said in a statement. Mark Neiweem, 28, also believed to be from Chicago, is charged with attempted possession of explosives or incendiary devices.
But prosecutors later clarified, “While the cases that were charged in court today arose from related investigations, the two defendants are not charged with any involvement in the terrorist case from yesterday, and today’s cases are separate matters. The two defendants (Senakiewicz and Neiweem) … each face their own charges arising from separate incidents.”
The two appeared in court Sunday. Bond was set at $750,000 for Senakiewicz and $500,000 for Neiweem, and both men are set to next appear in Cook County Circuit Court on Wednesday. It was not immediately known whether the two had attorneys.
Court documents allege Senakiewicz, a native of Poland, told associates he had made two homemade explosive devices that could “blow up half of an overpass for a train” and was planning to use them during the summit. He said last week that they were stored in a Chicago home in a hollowed-out “Harry Potter” book, the documents said.
He also claimed to possess a vehicle “filled with explosives and weapons,” according to the documents.
However, a search warrant found no explosives, and Senakiewicz told investigators that while he had made the statements, he did not actually possess a bomb, the court documents said.
Meanwhile, Neiweem allegedly told an associate that he wanted to obtain materials to make a pipe bomb, and that if the associate got the items, he would create it, according to court documents.
The three men charged in the NATO plot were identified as Brian Church, 22, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Jared Chase, 27, of Keene, New Hampshire; and Brent Betterly, 24, who told police he resides in Massachusetts, authorities said. An Illinois judge set bail at $1.5 million for each.
The three were charged with material support for terrorism, conspiracy to commit terrorism, and possession of explosives or incendiary devices, authorities said. The three men were arrested Wednesday, and charges were announced Saturday, according to authorities.
A lawyer representing the three has called the accusations against them “propaganda” and said authorities “infiltrated” a peaceful group and set the men up.
A police probe that began early this month revealed the three suspects are “self-proclaimed anarchists” and members of the “Black Bloc” group who traveled together from Florida to Chicago to commit violence as a protest against the NATO summit, authorities said in a statement.
“Black Bloc” was the group blamed for violence that occurred in recent “Occupy” protests, such as in Rome last year when anarchists in ski masks torched cars and clashed with police and even other Occupy protesters.
Senakiewicz also claimed to be a member of the “Black Bloc,” court documents said, as well as “an anarchist who is upset with the lack of chaos in Chicago.”
The three men were planning to destroy police cars and attack four Chicago police district stations with destructive devices as a way to undermine police response to other planned actions at the NATO summit, according to a statement by Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. Downtown Chicago financial institutions were also among the proposed targets, authorities said.
“The individuals that we have charged in this investigation are not peaceful protesters. They are domestic terrorists who came to Chicago with an anarchist agenda to harm our police officers, intimidate our citizens and to attack their politically motivated targets,” said Alvarez.
According to authorities, Church said he wanted to recruit four groups of four co-conspirators — or 16 people — and that reconnaissance had already been done on the Chicago Police Department headquarters.
The three men also possessed or built improvised explosive or incendiary devices, a mortar gun, swords, a hunting bow, throwing stars, and knives with brass-knuckle handles, authorities said.
In court, prosecutors accused the three men of preparing for “violence and destruction,” such as stockpiling Molotov cocktails.
A couple dozen of their supporters in the courtroom could be heard faintly scoffing at prosecutor Matthew Thrun as he called the defendants “self-proclaimed anarchists … making preparations for violence and destruction.”
Thrun said one of the defendants could be heard planning an attack and quoted him as saying, “This city does not know what it is in for, and it will never be the same.”
According to Thrun, the defendants bought gasoline at a BP station, cut bandanas for fuses, and had four empty beer bottles to be used as Molotov cocktails.
Thrun told the court that Church made a remark while assembling the Molotov cocktails: “Ever seen a cop on fire?”
Defense attorney Michael Deutsch accused authorities of “police misconduct,” saying undercover agents infiltrated a “peaceful” group.
“They even bought the makings of Molotov cocktails and gave it to them,” Deutsch said in court.
Outside of court, he called the case a setup and an example of “entrapment to the highest degree.”
“It is sensationalism by the police and the state to discredit the protesters that have come here to nonviolently protest,” the attorney said.
The National Lawyers Guild, representing the three defendants, said Chicago police arrested a total of nine activists Wednesday at a house in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood and then released six of them.
The guild described the three defendants as “Occupy activists” and said police provided no evidence of criminal intent or wrongdoing.
“It’s outrageous for the city to apply terrorism charges when it’s the police who have been terrorizing activists and threatening their right to protest,” attorney Sarah Gelsomino with the lawyers guild and the People’s Law Office, said in a statement.
Judge Edward Harmening set the three defendants’ next court date for Tuesday.
NATO kicked off its two-day summit Sunday in Chicago.
The war in Afghanistan is expected to dominate discussions.
NATO leaders are currently on a timetable to withdraw all of the alliance’s combat troops from Afghanistan in 2014.
CNN’s Michael Martinez, Paul Vercammen, and Josh Levs contributed to this report.
via Authorities: 2 latest suspects not involved in alleged NATO plot – CNN.com.
Posted by Evan Trowbridge on May 20, 2012
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Protesters Wage Cyber Attack on Chicago Police, NATO Websites – ABC News
By ALYSSA NEWCOMB (@alyssanewcomb)
May 20, 2012
A hacking group affiliated with Anonymous took responsibility for temporarily crippling the Chicago Police and NATO websites today, proving authorities now have more than just street protests to worry about on the first day of the military alliance’s summit.
Chicago police are working with federal authorities to investigate the attack and the extent of it, the Chicago Tribune reported.
NATO has not confirmed it was the victim of a cyber attack. All three sites now appear to be running as usual.
A lengthy statement from the hacking group, which called itself antis3curityops, was posted on Cyber War News, declaring: “We are in your harbor Chicago, and you will not forget us.”
A Twitter user affiliated with Anonymous tweeted “Tango Down” with a link to the Chicago Police Department’s website. “Reason: for violation of #humanrights,” @Anon_Central wrote.
The attack was orchestrated using DDoS, a method in which numerous systems attack a single target website until it is forced to shut down.
Cole Stryker, author of “Epic Win For Anonymous,” said today’s hacking was likely more embarrassing than harmful to the Chicago Police Department.
via Protesters Wage Cyber Attack on Chicago Police, NATO Websites – ABC News.
Posted by Evan Trowbridge on May 20, 2012
http://evantrowbridge.com/2012/05/20/protesters-wage-cyber-attack-on-chicago-police-nato-websites-abc-news/
U.N. observer team evacuated from Syrian town escape deadly violence
By AL ARABIYA WITH AFP
United Nations-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on Wednesday said U.N. observers monitoring the violence in Syria were evacuated from a tense town a day after a blast hit their convoy.
Syrian troops were accused by activists of another massacre when they opened fire on a funeral procession and reportedly killed 20 people on Tuesday in the town of Khan Sheikhun, in the northwestern province of Idlib.
During Tuesday’s funeral, a convoy of U.N. observers was struck by a homemade bomb, damaging three vehicles but causing no casualties.
Because of blast damage to their car, six members of the team were forced to spend the night with activists in Khan Sheikhun, which came under heavy regime shelling, an activist said.
Annan’s office said the U.N. mission had picked up the six military observers and that they were back at their team site in the central city of Hama.
It was the second roadside bombing involving the military observers’ vehicles in less than a week, after six Syrian soldiers escorting a convoy were wounded in a May 9 bombing in Daraa.
At least 32 people have also been killed by Syrian forces across the country on Wednesday, activists said, Al Arabiya reported citing Syrian activists at the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) and the Syrian Media Center.
The United Nations, which accuses both sides of violating an April 12 ceasefire, reaffirmed its condemnation of any violence against the monitors.
“This mission is there to help the people of Syria, to help ensure that the six-point plan is implemented,” spokesman Martin Nesirky said, referring to Annan’s peace plan.
via U.N. observer team evacuated from Syrian town escape deadly violence.
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Posted by Evan Trowbridge on May 16, 2012
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Abington to host clinic for concussion testing
ABINGTON —
Jeannine Donato’s life changed when she got a call two years ago that her youngest son Nolan was being rushed by ambulance to Children’s Hospital in Boston after being hit into the boards during a hockey game.
Donato is no stranger to head injuries or hockey. She worked as a nurse in the head trauma unit at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston and she is the wife of Ted Donato, a 13-year NHL veteran who played for the Boston Bruins and now coaches the Harvard University men’s hockey team.
Donato’s son Nolan was diagnosed with a concussion and doctors asked if he had ever taken a baseline concussion test – a computerized exam that measures cognitive abilities such as recall, reaction time and pattern recognition.
Donato had never heard of it until that day but made it her mission to make the test available to athletes of all ages. So she founded the business, A Head of the Game.
Donato, now the Abington public health nurse and a board member at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, is offering the test on Friday at the Abington senior center from 4 to 8 p.m. to any student athletes ages 10 and older.
A concussion is a traumatic brain injury caused by a blow that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull.
The test to be given on Friday measures visual and verbal memory and reaction times. It is taken before the athlete’s season begins, and then, if a concussion is sustained, the test is retaken and used to measure the severity of the injury, the part of the brain affected and the progress of recovery.
“If kids don’t have the baseline test, it’s a guessing game for when they’re ready to go back (after a concussion),” said Donato.
“Without baseline testing, 20 to 30 percent of athletes will report being symptom-free without being back to normal,” said Bill Meehan, director of the sports concussion clinic and director of research for the brain injury center at Children’s Hospital in Boston.
The risks of resuming sports play are serious, said Meehan. One of the most dangerous is “second impact” syndrome, which is caused when the brain is not fully healed from a concussion, is re-injured and can result in traumatic brain swelling.
“It is hard to tell when someone’s recovered,” said Meehan. “It takes longer to recover if someone continues to sustain injuries.”
The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association does not require baseline concussion testing but has increased concussion awareness over the last few years as head injuries continue to become more of a concern for student athletes and their parents.
A new state law requires all athletes, coaches, school nurses and parents to take a concussion education online test, requires schools to keep a record of all concussions and for each athlete to be cleared by a medical professional before returning to play after a concussion.
Abington’s youth sports teams, including the Abington Lacrosse League and Abington Youth Football, have been notified of the testing this week and league presidents say they have encouraged athletes to attend.
Most athletes who sustain one or two concussions will recover completely if the injury is treated correctly, said Dr. Meehan.
Erin Shannon may be reached at eshannon@enterprisenews.com.
Posted by Evan Trowbridge on May 16, 2012
http://evantrowbridge.com/2012/05/16/abington-to-host-clinic-for-concussion-testing-brockton-ma-the-enterprise/
Civilians ‘summarily executed’ in Homs, as Syrian death toll mounts across the country
At least 15 civilians were “summarily executed” by regime forces in a neighborhood of the central Syrian city of Homs overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday.
“After regime forces raided the neighborhood of Shammas, 15 civilians were found summarily executed,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based watchdog told AFP, qualifying the killings a “massacre.”
He said a Muslim cleric who had six children was among those killed.
As many as sixteen people have also been killed by Syrian forces across the country , activists said, few hours after regime forces shelled central Deraa overnight, killing at least eight people, including two children, Al Arabiya reported citing Syrian activists at the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) and the Syrian Media Center.
via Civilians ‘summarily executed’ in Homs, as Syrian death toll mounts across the country.
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Posted by Evan Trowbridge on May 16, 2012
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49 decapitated bodies found in Mexico – CNN.com
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- “This is not an attack against the civilian population,” a security official says
- The bodies were decapitated and dismembered, officials say
- The find comes days after a retired military general took charge of the local police
- Officials have not ruled out the possibility that victims could be immigrants
Monterrey, Mexico (CNN) — Mexican authorities found at least 49 decapitated and dismembered bodies along a highway in a northern border state Sunday morning, officials said.
The remains were left along the road in Nuevo Leon state, between the cities of Monterrey and Reynosa.
A message written on a wall nearby appeared to refer to the Zetas drug cartel.
“This continues to be violence between criminal groups. This is not an attack against the civilian population,” said Jorge Domene, Nuevo Leon’s state security spokesman.
He said it appeared as though the victims were killed a day or two ago, somewhere else, and that their bodies were then dropped off.
Officials said they had not ruled out the possibility that the victims could be Central American immigrants or residents of another state, telling reporters Sunday that there had not been many local missing persons reports in recent days.
But the area has become a battleground for a brutal conflict between the Zetas and the Gulf cartel, and reports of forced disappearances have become increasingly common in recent years.
Police and troops were combing the area and set up checkpoints after authorities received a report of the remains around 3 a.m. Sunday, police said.
The remains were found in the municipality of Cadereyta Jimenez, near the industrial city of Monterrey and about 80 miles southwest of the U.S. border, police said.
Posted by Evan Trowbridge on May 13, 2012
http://evantrowbridge.com/2012/05/13/49-decapitated-bodies-found-in-mexico-cnn-com/
