Thousands of bone fragments found in northern Mexico

More than 4,000 bone fragments have been found in a field in a violence-plagued northern Mexican region since 2015, but most of the remains are linked to just three bodies.

An association of families of missing people, Grupo Vida, or Life Group, has been combing the area of Patrocinio, on the slope of a mountain in Coahuila state, for remains of their loved ones.

Silvia Ortiz, the group's spokeswoman, said around 700 bone fragments were found in the past week alone in what she calls an area of "extermination due to the condition of the bones."

It is the latest grim discovery made by relatives of the disappeared in Mexico, a country where 28,000 people are reported missing amid raging drug violence.

The Coahuila state government acknowledged late Saturday that 3,488 bone fragments, including a jawbone, teeth and finger bones had been found between early 2015 and last Monday, though the statement did not mention the latest gruesome discovery.

The degree to which they were charred shows that the "bodies of the victims were burned with fuel so that it would not be possible to identify the person," the statement said.

"It's not 3,488 people," the government stressed. "Through these fragments, we were able to determine they belong to three different people" via forensic tests.

Grupo Vida is among a slew of groups formed by relatives of missing people in Mexico in recent years to look for clandestine graves on their own because the authorities have been incapable of finding their loved ones.

Such organizations have emerged in other states, with many families inspired by the crusade launched by parents of 43 students who disappeared after they were abducted by police in the city of Iguala, southern Guerrero state, in September 2014.

Grupo Vida began its search in the municipality of San Pedro de las Colonias in January 2015. They have been accompanied by forensic experts and Coahuila state investigators. They searched in Patrocinio following tips from goat herders.

"They 'cooked' people in that location," Ortiz told AFP, referring to the grim techniques used by criminals to make victims disappear.

The Zetas drug cartel, an ultra-violent group founded by former special forces soldiers, has terrorized the region for years and has engaged in brutal turf wars with their former allies at the Gulf cartel. The Zetas are known for dissolving bodies in acid.

In 2011, the Zetas kidnapped and allegedly slaughtered dozens of people elsewhere in Coahuila, in the town of Allende, though the figure could actually be closer to 300, according to a report by the College of Mexico released on Sunday.

The report found collusion between organized crime and local police, and it accused state and federal authorities of ignoring the tragedy for years, waiting until 2014 to send investigators to clear up what happened.

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