Tijuana: At least 37 people were killed over three days in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, including four children caught in shootouts and nine men found decapitated, the state attorney general said.

More than 200 people have been killed in the past month in Tijuana, where officials say rival cells of the Arellano-Felix drug cartel have been waging a bloody battle across the border from San Diego.

Baja California state Attorney General Rommel Moreno said three police officers were among the nine decapitated men, whose bodies and heads were discovered in a poor Tijuana neighbourhood. Their police credentials were found stuffed in their mouths.

Police were investigating whether some of the 37 deaths between Saturday and Monday were part of a retaliatory spree sparked by the killing of a 25-year-old woman believed to be a drug trafficker's girlfriend, Moreno said.

He said interviews with families members indicated that 80 per cent of the victims had been involved in drug dealing.

But four of the dead were children.

Two brothers, aged 4 and 13,had been waiting for their parents outside a convenience store when gunmen opened fire, killing the boys and several adults.

A 14-year-old boy working at locksmith's kiosk was shot dead in an attack on a neighbouring business. And a 12-year-old was killed when the car he was riding was sprayed with bullets.

Violence has soared in Mexico as drug cartels compete for smuggling routes and battle government forces.

Source : PTI