Mexican Admiral Carlos Salazar killed in Michoacan ambush.
Gunmen have killed one of Mexico's highest ranking navy officials in the western state of Michoacan, where the military is trying to regain control of areas dominated by warring drug gangs.Vice Adm Carlos Salazar was ambushed on an unpaved road near the town of Churintzio.
His car had been diverted from the main road by protesters believed to have been hired by the gunmen. The attack comes days after two police officers were killed in another ambush.
Deadly diversion
Adm Salazar was travelling on a motorway connecting Michoacan's capital, Morelia, with the state of Jalisco, where he was serving as commander of a naval base in Puerto Vallarta.
Knights Templar drug cartel
First emerged in 2011 as an off-shoot of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel
Takes its name from a Christian military order from the Middle Ages
Claims to protect Michoacan residents from kidnappings, extortion and robberies committed by rival gangs
Members say they abide by a code of honour which includes not drinking or taking drugs and not abusing family members
Often uses pseudo-religious language to justify acts of violence
Controls much of the methamphetamine and marijuana trade in western Mexico
Cartel members have been accused of murders, kidnappings and extortion
Operates mainly in western Michoacan state
At war with Zetas cartel and Jalisco Nueva Generacion drugs gang.
The navy said Adm Salazar's driver was forced to take the rural road when he found the road blocked by a group of men apparently protesting.
Gunmen then opened fire on the car, killing the admiral and his bodyguard. The admiral's wife and his driver were injured.
Despite the deployment of helicopters and hundreds of security officers to the area, so far no one has been detained in connection with the attack.
The Mexican navy has landed a number of well-publicised successes against Mexico's powerful drug cartels, including the arrest two weeks ago of leader of the Zetas drug cartel, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales.
There has been a recent spike in violence in Michoacan, with drug cartels fighting the security forces and each other.
On Tuesday, two federal police officers and twenty gunmen were killed when armed groups carried out a series of six co-ordinated ambushes on the security forces.
It is not clear who was behind either of the attacks yet, but a cartel calling itself the Knights Templar controls parts of Michoacan state.
In May, President Enrique Pena Nieto sent a general to Michoacan to take over police and military operations in the hope of quelling the violence.
Seventy-thousand people are estimated to have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2007.
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