An American family returning to the U.S. after a holiday visit to Mexico came under attack just south of Texas on Saturday night, with armed gunmen killing a 13-year-old and wounding three other people.
The attorney general's office in the state of Tamaulipas said the child was a U.S. citizen and that the parents were permanent residents of the U.S. They did not release the victims' names.
The family was traveling in a Chevrolet SUV with Oklahoma state plates, returning from a holiday visit to relatives in the state of San Luis Potosi.
The highway on which they were shot is considered high risk.
It runs through an area that's disputed by criminal groups, including the Gulf Cartel and Zetas.
The road connects the city of Mier with Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, on the banks of the Rio Grande across the US–Mexico border from Falcon Heights, Texas.
In November, an ambush in northern Mexico left nine American women and children dead.
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Prosecutors said last week seven suspects have now been detained in connection with that attack.
»News of massacre stuns Mexico, a nation plagued by violence
Tamaulipas has been a major conduit for drug shipments and has also been the scene of some of the worst massacres and fiercest fighting in Mexico's drug war.
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