Nineteen Mexican soldiers were sent to a military prison on Monday after troops allegedly killed two women and three children whose vehicle failed to stop at an army checkpoint, the Defense Department said.
The shooting in the Pacific state of Sinaloa was the latest case of suspected abuse by soldiers deployed by Mexican President Felipe Calderon in a national offensive against powerful drug cartels.
The family was traveling to a funeral on Friday when they were ordered to stop at the checkpoint near the village of La Joya, local media said. When they failed to stop, soldiers reportedly opened fire on the van.
Police identified the dead as Alicia Esparza Parra, 17; Griselda Galaviz Barraza, 25, and Galaviz Barraza's children Joniel, 7; Griselda, 4, and Juana, 2. Three civilians in the van were wounded.
The Mexican Defense Department said in a news release that three officers and 16 enlisted personnel were being held on Monday at a prison in the city of Mazatlan pending an investigation by military and civilian authorities into the killings.
Sinaloa Governor Jesus Aguilar on Monday lamented the shooting, but said the army would remain in the state "to safeguard the security of its citizens."
Calderon has sent more than 24,000 soldiers and federal police to battle heavily armed drug gangs blamed for more than 1,000 deaths this year, including dozens of victims who have been decapitated and had their heads displayed in public places.
Drug gunmen have also hit the military, ambushing and killing five soldiers in coordinated attack last month in Calderon's mountainous home state of Michoacan.
In the days following the ambush, soldiers were alleged to have held four teenage girls from a nearby village hostage as they beat and raped them, the government-run National Human Rights Commission said.
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