Mexico gunfight leaves at least 44 dead

At least 44 people were killed on Friday in a gunfight in western Mexico between government forces and suspected drug gang henchmen, officials said, one of the bloodiest days of violence to shake the country under President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the government officials said two federal police died and one was badly injured in the shootout near the Michoacan state border with Jalisco, a state home to Mexico's second-biggest city, Guadalajara.

The rest killed at a ranch near the town of Tanhuato were suspected members of the Jalisco New Generation (JNG) cartel, which is based in the neighbouring state, the officials said.

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One of the officials said federal police received an anonymous tip that armed men had gathered at the ranch and that shooting began after they arrived. Security forces attacked the suspected gang members by air and by land, he added.

Among the weapons recovered from the scene by police were rocket launchers and powerful guns, the official said.

President's pledge for stability

A week ago, federal forces replaced police inTanhuatoafter the assassination of a candidate for mayor in a nearby town.

Jaliscois one of the engines of the Mexican economy, and the JNG has become a headache forPenaNieto.

The cartel has killed at least 20 police since March and on May 1 its gunmen shot down an army helicopter in southwesternJalisco, killing six military personnel.

In a series of concerted attacks that day, the gang also set vehicles, banks and gas stations ablaze around Guadalajara.

The recent killings have increased pressure onPenaNietoto deliver on a pledge he made upon taking office in December 2012 to bring stability to Mexico following years of violence.

PenaNieto'sInstitutional Revolutionary Party hopes to defend the slim majority it and its allies have in the lower house of Congress in mid-term elections on June 7.

More than 100,000 people have died in clashes between the drug gangs and security forces since the start of 2007.