JUAREZ, MEXICO - MARCH 24: Members of the Mexican military police keep guard at the scene of the murder of two women aged 17 and 21 March 24, 2010 in Juarez, Mexico. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano all visited Mexico yesterday for discussions centered on Mexico's endemic drug-related violence. The border city of Juarez, Mexico has been racked by violent drug-related crime recently and has quickly become one of the most dangerous cities in the world in which to live. As drug cartels have been fighting over ever-lucrative drug corridors along the United States border, the murder rate in Juarez has risen to 173 slayings for every 100,000 residents. President Felipe Calderon's strategy of sending 7000 troops to Juarez has not mitigated the situation. With a population of 1.3 million, 2,600 people died in drug-related violence last year and 500 so far this year, including two Americans recently who worked for the U.S. Consulate and were killed as they returned from a child's party. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (2010 Getty Images)
MEXICO CITY (AP) – Soldiers killed 22 people at a warehouse in central Mexico state Monday in a shootout that also left a soldier injured, the Defense Department said.
The department said in a brief statement that soldiers were patrolling the town of Tlataya when they came across a warehouse being guarded by armed men, who opened fire on the troops.
Twenty-one men and one woman were killed in the shootout and soldiers rescued three women who said they had been kidnapped, it said. Soldier also seized 22 automatic rifles, two shotguns, 13 handguns, a hand grenade and dozens of round of ammunition.
The town of Tlataya is in the mountains near the state of Guerrero, an area known for growing marijuana.
Mexico state, which rings Mexico City, in recent months has seen an increase in killings linked to drug cartels.
Authorities didn't say if those killed in Mexico state were members of an organized crime group.
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