MEXICO CITY (AP) — A land mine exploded in central Mexico, killing at least three soldiers in what President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday was a “trap” likely set by a drug cartel.
The soldiers were killed Thursday on the outskirts of the city of Aguililla in the embattled Mexican state of Michoacán, López Obrador said in a weekly news conference.
He said soldiers were inspecting a camp, likely used by cartel members, when they stepped on an anti-personnel mine set in the underbrush. One soldier was killed immediately, and the other two died later from their wounds.
“We deeply regret this crime,” Lopez Obrador said. “It weighs on me.”
While López Obrador did not confirm which of Mexico’s warring cartels carried out the attack, the soldiers were working in a territory dominated by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Local media reported the soldiers also fought with cartel members and were attacked by drones, a tool increasingly used by cartels to wage war on authorities and rival cartels, but López Obrador did not provide more details about the attack.
The deaths come as armed violence has soared in Mexico under Lopez Obrador. Brutal slayings of police and military have become a common occurrence. Last week, two local candidates for the upcoming June 2 elections were gunned down in another city in Michoacán within just hours of each other.
The election is on track to be one of the most violent in Mexican history.