3 Gunmen die in attack on mayor in northern Mexico

At least three gunmen were killed in a failed attack on the mayor of a northern town located near this metropolis, Mexico's industrial hub.

"I was heading to an event in my SUV when my driver told me that armed men were pursuing us," Garcia Mayor Jaime Rodriguez Calderon told reporters after the midday incident.

The mayor's bodyguards shot back when the assailants opened fire, killing three of the attackers.

Three damaged vehicles were found at the scene and an extensive police and military operation - with helicopter support - has been launched in the area.

Rodriguez Calderon said the attack may have been carried out by local police officers at the service of the Los Zetas crime mob, one of the most active in northeastern Mexico.

Garcia is located some 27 kilometers (16 miles) from downtown Monterrey, Mexico's wealthiest city.

Hours before the attack on the mayor, gunmen killed Luis Cortes Ochoa, a former deputy police chief of the affluent Monterrey suburb of San Pedro Garza Garcia, in the nearby town of San Nicolas de los Garza, Nuevo Leon state security council spokesman Jorge Domene said.

Domene also confirmed that two state police officers identified as Fidel Arevalo Gaona and Miguel Angel Ruiz Arriaga were killed Thursday while traveling along the Monterrey-Anahuac highway.

"They were attacked with bursts of submachine gun fire by gunmen riding in two SUVs," the spokesman said.

In the town of Cadereyta, Nuevo Leon, soldiers on Thursday repelled an attack by a group of gunmen and killed four of the assailants, the Mexican Defense Secretariat said.

Nuevo Leon, whose capital is Monterrey, has been wracked for a year by a vicious turf battle between the Los Zetas and Gulf drug cartels.

The fight for territory has left more than 160 dead thus far this year.