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- Dubai 04:20 05:42 12:28 15:53 19:08 20:30
Relatives of missing people show the pictures of their loved ones during a mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Guadalajara, Mexico on November 2, 2014, during All Souls' Day. Civil societies estimate that there are more than 30,000 people missing in Mexico due to violence. (AFP)
Seven Mexican soldiers being held in the June killings of 22 suspected criminals will be tried by a civilian judge, three of them for homicide, federal justice officials said Sunday.
The troops were ordered arrested Friday by a Mexico state judge for dereliction of duty in the June 30 incident.
Three of them are charged with aggravated homicide, and one of them with allowing a crime to take place.
For now, the soldiers are jailed in a military detention center.
In September, a witness said the gun battle itself had left only one dead, and the other 21 were killed in cold blood by the soldiers -- including her 15-year-old daughter.
The case adds to the shock surrounding a more recent case of 43 students who went missing in the southern town of Iguala in late September. They were allegedly taken away and killed by police linked to a drug cartel.
If confirmed, the incident would mark one of the worst horrors in a drug war that has left more than 80,000 people dead since the conflict ramped up in 2006.
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