At least 13 police officers killed in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — At least 13 police officers were killed early Monday in the state of Michoacan in western Mexico, the latest in a series of high-casualty attacks by armed criminal groups across the country.

The state police were enforcing a judicial order in the small town of El Aguaje not long after daybreak when they were ambushed, security officials said.

Local media reported that the attack was waged from an armed convoy of 20 vehicles.

State authorities said 13 police officers were killed and three more injured. Federal officials put the death toll at 14.

Photographs of the aftermath of the attack show a blue-and-white police vehicle in flames. In audio recordings published on a local media website, officers can be heard begging for backup over police scanners.

“Help, man,” one officer pleaded. “They knocked almost all of us down.”

Officials have not said who they believe carried out the attacks or cited a motive, but local journalists reported that the assailants were affiliated with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and had left signed messages at the crime scene warning police not to collaborate with rival organizations.

The cartel, which traffics drugs to the United States but also profits from a variety of other illicit ventures, including extortion and fuel theft, has expanded throughout Mexico in recent years. Security analysts say its growth has played a role in the country’s spiraling homicide rate, which is on target to break another record this year.