Trump reacts to 9 killings

MEXICO CITY: Gunmen killed nine women and children in the bloodiest attack on Americans in Mexico for years, prompting US President Donald Trump to offer to help the neighbouring country wipe out drug cartels believed to be behind the ambush.

The nine people killed in yesterday’s daytime attack at the border of Chihuahua and Sonora states belonged to the Mexican-American LeBaron, Langford, Miller and Johnson families, members of breakaway Mormon communities that settled in northern Mexico’s hills and plains decades ago.

A video posted on social media showed the charred and smoking remains of a vehicle riddled with bullet holes that was apparently carrying some of the victims on a dirt road when the attack occurred.

‘‘This is for the record,’’ says a male voice speaking English in an American accent, off camera, choking with emotion.

‘‘Nita and four of my grandchildren are burnt and shot up,’’ the man says, apparently referring to Rhonita LeBaron, one of the three women who died in the attack.

Reuters could not independently verify the video.

A relative, Julian LeBaron, called the incident a massacre and said some family members were burned alive.

All of the dead were US citizens. The victims were members of the small community of La Mora, Sonora, set up decades ago by ‘‘pioneers’’ who broke away from the Mormon church.

Trump praised Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for combating cartel violence but said more had to be done.

‘‘This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage war on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth,’’ Trump said in a tweet reacting to the massacre.

Later, he and Lopez Obrador spoke by phone, the former offering help to ensure the perpetrators faced justice.

Prior to the call, Lopez Obrador rejected what he called any foreign government intervention.

Mexico has used its military in a war on drug cartels since 2006. Despite the arrest or killing of leading traffickers, the campaign has not succeeded in reducing drug violence and has led to more killings as criminal groups fight among themselves.