Drug war escalates in Mexico

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) - Suspected drug cartel gunmen hurled grenades, burned vehicles and blocked streets in a rapid series of attacks in Mexico's second-largest city, authorities said Wednesday.

The seven attacks within two hours late Tuesday appear to have been coordinated, and were staged by drug gangs, possibly in retaliation for the arrests of their members, said Fernando Guzman Perez, interior secretary of Jalisco state, where the city of Guadalajara is located. A policeman and two transportation workers were injured in the attacks.

"This is an orchestrated attack by criminal forces," Guzman Perez said. "There have been arrests ... of people linked to these cells of organized crime, and perhaps it was because of those detentions that attacks over the past few hours broke out."

Assailants hurled a grenade at a police station and burned a bus and commuter trains to block streets, injuring transportation workers who tried to resist, he said.

Other attacks took place Tuesday and Wednesday in the northern cities of Zacatecas and Monterrey, Mexico's third-largest city, resulting in several deaths. A series of attacks in Monterrey on Tuesday left a federal police officer and three suspected cartel gunmen dead and three police officers injured.