Seven bodies found in unmarked Mexico grave

MEXICO CITY: Mexican authorities on Monday uncovered an unmarked grave containing seven bodies, apparently the latest victims of the country's brutal wave of drug violence.

The prosecutor's office in the northern Chihuahua state said the seven ranged in age from 19 to 40 and included one woman. They were found with their hands and feet bound, after having gone missing on August 13, it added.

In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most violent city, which is located in the same state, police found five buried skulls and were looking for the rest of the bodies' remains, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said.

Another 12 people were killed in separate incidents throughout the state, officials said.

Some 41,000 people have been killed in violence linked to organized crime since Mexico launched a massive military crackdown on powerful, warring drug cartels in 2006.

The cartels have waged fierce turf wars marked by kidnappings, torture and macabre massacres as they have battled over territory, particularly lucrative trade routes north to the United States, a key market for illicit drugs.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011