Feb 7 (Reuters) - Following are selected incidents that took place during the past week in Mexico's escalating war on powerful drug cartels. More than 34,000 people have died since Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched his military campaign on drugs when he took office in late 2006.
NUEVO LAREDO - Gunmen shot dead the police chief in the city of Nuevo Laredo on the Texas border on Wednesday night. The former general had been on the job less than five weeks, police said.
LOS RAMONES - Five mutilated bodies were found dumped on the side of the highway in the municipality of Los Ramones in Nuevo Leon state near Mexico's richest city Monterrey on Sunday. A message from a drug cartel was left near the bodies, which showed signs of torture.
SAN FERNANDO - Mexican soldiers killed 13 suspected drug hitmen in the northern state of Tamaulipas in three separate incidents, the army said on Saturday. Six of the gunmen died in a shootout in the municipality of San Fernando, six more in Valle Hermoso and one other in Nuevo Laredo.
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Factbox on political risks in Mexico [ID:nRISKMX]
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ENSENADA - A city councilman was killed on Sunday night in the northern half of the Baja California peninsula, the night of a gubernatorial election in Baja California Sur, investigators said. The local politician was shot in the coast town of Ensenada, below the violent border city of Tijuana.
CIUDAD JUAREZ - Days of sub-zero temperatures fluctuating between -0.4 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-18 and -10 degrees Celsius) did not stop gunmen from killing at least 10 people during the week in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most violent drug war city which is across from El Paso, Texas, police and media said.
MONTERREY - Gunmen attacked police checkpoints with grenades across Monterrey on Tuesday and killed two policemen in separate attacks, police said.
GUADALAJARA - Suspected drug hitmen set up roadblocks, torched cars and threw grenades across the western city of Guadalajara on Tuesday in an apparent reaction to the arrest of several gang leaders, police said.
MONTERREY - The dismembered body of the security chief of Monterrey's Topo Chico jail was found in the trunk of a car near the prison on Saturday, Mexican media reported.
MATAMOROS - Two grenades were thrown at the Matamoros General Hospital on Friday night in Tamaulipas, the Brownsville Herald reported. Mexican police declined to comment. The city, across from Texas, is caught in a battle between the powerful Gulf cartel and the Zetas gang.
CADEREYTA - Residents found three human heads dumped on a road in the town of Cadereyta outside Monterrey in northern Mexico on Monday, police and Mexican media said. Suspected hitmen collected up the heads and drove off with them before police could reach the area. (Compiled by Robin Emmott in Monterrey and Mica Rosenberg in Mexico City; Editing by Paul Simao)
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