Gunmen shoot Mexico marine family in 'revenge killing'

Cordova's aunt and mother were killed hours after his funeral

Gunmen have killed four relatives of an elite Mexican soldier who died during an operation targeting one of the country's most-wanted drug lords.

The mother, brother, sister and aunt of marine Melquisedet Angulo Cordova were killed in an apparent revenge attack in the south-eastern state of Tabasco.

Gunmen targeted the family within hours of the soldier's funeral.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon called the murders "a cowardly and contemptible act of violence".

"These outrageous actions show the lack of scruples of organised crime in mowing down innocent lives," he said.

Crackdown

A local police official described how the gunmen had broken down the door of the family home, in Quintin Arauz, with a sledgehammer.

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"They [...] sprayed them with bullets in the living room and bedrooms," deputy police commander Saturnino Dominguez said.

Reporter Franc Contreras, in Mexico City, said the multiple murders were being considered a revenge killing in Mexico, raising fears that the government is not able to protect those who battle the cartels on behalf of the state.

Cordova was the only solider killed during the raid on the property of Arturo Beltran Leyva, who was the third most-wanted man in Mexico.

Beltran Leyva and four alleged members of his cartel died during the shoot-out involving some 200 officers at a flat in Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City.

Based on the Pacific coast, his cartel was one of Mexico's most powerful and violent drug gangs.

Known as the "boss of bosses", Arturo Beltran Leyva was one of five brothers who split from the Sinaloa cartel and aligned themselves with Los Zetas, a group of former soldiers hired by the Gulf Cartel as hit men.

The split is believed to have fuelled much of the bloodshed across Mexico, where more than 14,000 people have died in drugs-related violence since 2006.

Mexico's authorities are battling a wave of violence by drug gangs fighting over smuggling routes to the US.

Washington says the rising death toll is a sign the drug gangs are weakening under President Calderon's military crackdown, which has seen some 49,000 extra troops deploy across Mexico.