Inter-gang warfare in Tamaulipas left 21 people dead after a battle in the border municipality of Miguel Alemán.

State Attorney General Irving Barrios said yesterday’s discovery of the bodies followed a missing persons report filed by a local woman looking for her husband.

At the same time, authorities received a report of two rival criminal gangs embroiled in a shootout in the region.

Fifteen of the bodies were burned or partially burned, said the Attorney General.

They were found strewn around seven vehicles that had been set on fire.

Barrios explained that the warring parties have been identified as the Gulf and Northeast cartels, which are fighting for territorial control in that part of Tamaulipas.

The Attorney General also said that some of the dead were wearing uniforms similar to those worn by marines.

No weapons were found, leading authorities to believe that the killers took them away after setting the scene on fire.

Source: El Universal (sp)