MEXICAN GUN BATTLES FORCE U.S. TO CLOSE TWO BORDER CROSSINGS
For the sake of public safety, U.S. authorities temporarily shut down two international bridge crossings connecting Eagle Pass, Texas, to Piedras Negras in Coahuila, Mexico, due to several gun battles between Mexican military forces and drug traffickers. The bridges remained shut from approximately 9 p.m. on March 6 and 8 a.m. the following day.According to Mexican news reports, the U.S. State Department requested the shutdown in response to a series of gun battles involving rifles and rocket grenade launchers. Media account from both sides of the border revealed that the traffickers used an 18-wheeler engulfed in fire as a road block approximately a quarter-mile from one of the bridges and that one female police officer and at least six members of the Mexican military were wounded as a result of the battle.
