Sinaloa rocked by soaring drug violence

At least 21 people, including a 12-year-old girl and other ordinary citizens, have been killed by warring drug gangs since Thursday in the western state of Sinaloa, in one of the worst spasms of violence in memory in a region long conditioned to narcotics-related savagery.

By Marla Dickerson and Cecilia Sánchez

July 15, 2008