Nine US citizens, three women and six children, have been killed in an attack by suspected drug cartel gunmen in northern Mexico.
The victims are members of the LeBaron family, linked to a breakaway Mormon community that settled in Mexico several decades ago.
The victims were travelling in a convoy of vehicles.
The security minister said the group could have been targeted accidentally as a result of mistaken identity.
Sonora state in northern Mexico is being fought over by two rival gangs, La Línea, which has links to the larger Juárez cartel, and “Los Chapos”, which is part of the Sinaloa cartel.
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In a tweet President Donald Trump described the victims as a group of “wonderful family and friends” who “got caught between two vicious drug cartels, who were shooting at each other”.
The US “stands ready”, he said, to offer support to combat the problem of cartel violence and “do the job quickly and effectively”. The FBI has offered to assist Mexican authorities in the investigation, CNN reports.
Mexico’s President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said Mexico would act with “independence and sovereignty” in pursuing the criminals behind the attack.
A relative of the victims, Alex LeBaron, told CNN that the bodies of the deceased had been returned to their family ranch.
A group of three mothers and their 14 children had set off in a convoy of three cars from Bavispe in Sonora state and were heading to the neighbouring state of Chihuahua. The women had been travelling together “for safety reasons”, an unnamed relative told CNN.
Nine people were killed after they were ambushed by gunmen in Bavispe.
A burnt-out SUV was later found by the side of the road with the remains of some victims and there are reports that other family members were shot at as they tried to flee.
Source:BBC
