Mexican police chief shot dead near US border

Gunmen have shot and killed a Mexican police chief in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo, judicial sources said.

Gunmen have shot and killed a Mexican police chief in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo, judicial sources said.

Alejandro Dominguez was sprayed with about 30 bullets while he was driving last night, source said.

The attack came hours after Mr Dominguez was appointed a local public security chief. A witness to the attack said gunfire came from more than one vehicle following Mr Dominguez's car.

He is the third police commander attacked in a week and the seventh killed this year in a brutal war with drug cartels.

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Today, gunmen in Nuevo Laredo killed a municipal police commander in front of his young daughter. A day earlier, another local police chief was ambushed and wounded driving through the city centre.

Nuevo Laredo is a major transit point for both legitimate trade and illegal narcotics entering the United States and the scene of a war between rival drug gangs.

At least 58 people, including seven police officers, have been murdered in the city this year as traffickers from western Sinaloa state and a local cartel battle for control of the lucrative cross-border trade in cocaine and marijuana.