Gunmen Attack US Family on Mexican Road, Kill Teen

Gunmen in northern Mexico opened fire on a family returning to the US on Saturday night, killing a 13-year-old girl and wounding her brother and parents. The family and other relatives were driving in two vehicles after spending the holidays in San Luis Potosi in central Mexico, CBS News reports. The attack took place on an isolated, two-lane highway south of Nuevo Laredo, the border city across from Laredo, Texas. The attackers passed the family's vehicles in an SUV and cut them off, causing a collision, and then opened fire, state officials said. The 10-year-old boy and his father and mother were taken to a hospital and reported to be in serious condition, per Reuters, which says the boy is a US citizen and cites a source who says the parents are legal residents of the US. Their names were not released.

The attack took place near the town of Ciudad Mier, in an area where drug cartels have long battled over territory and smuggling routes. Mexican media reported that the gunmen were drug traffickers and that the back window of one of their vehicles bore the initials of their cartel. They got away, said the state security agency, which said an investigation of the attack has begun. (American Mormons were killed in an attack on a highway in northern Mexico in November.)