An explosives attack on a police patrol left six people dead and 14 wounded in one of the regions of Mexico worst hit by drug cartel-related violence, authorities said Wednesday. “It’s an act of brutal terror,” said Enrique Alfaro, governor of the western state of Jalisco. The attack Tuesday night using seven improvised explosive devices targeted police and staff from the state prosecutor’s office in Tlajomulco de Zuniga, a suburb of the city of Guadalajara, he said. The region is home to the Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent drug trafficking groups. “This is an unprecedented event that shows what these organized crime groups are capable of,” Alfaro said, without accusing a specific organization.

 “This attack also represents a challenge against the Mexican state as a whole,” he added. While firearms are the weapon of choice for cartel members, a car bomb killed a National Guardsman and wounded others in June in Guanajuato, another state hit hard by gang-related violence. Drug cartels appear to be employing increasingly radical tactics to terrorize security forces, according to experts. “These are strategies of extreme violence to intimidate the authorities… and the population,” Gerardo Rodriguez, a researcher at the Universidad de las Americas Puebla, a private university, told. Earlier this month, an explosives-laden drone struck a house in Michoacan, another violence-plagued state, wounding one person. Similar drone attacks have been reported in other cartel flashpoints.

 The objective is to “reduce the firepower of rivals from other cartels as well as the security forces, and provoke terror among the civilian population,” security consultant David Saucedo told, describing such acts as “narcoterrorism.” The Jalisco New Generation cartel in particular is known for launching brazen attacks against authorities. In 2015, its gunmen shot down an army helicopter with rocket-propelled grenades, killing members of the security forces. The police patrol was responding to a report from a member of a group searching for missing relatives who said she had received an anonymous phone call and tipoff about clandestine graves, the governor said.

 
Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP