13 die in gang's gun attack on teenage party

Armed men stormed a party in a violent Mexican border city, killing 13 high school and college students in what witnesses thought was an attack prompted by false information.

The deaths in Ciudad Juarez were part of a total of 24 people killed across Mexico since Saturday in violence caused by ongoing turf battles between powerful drug cartels.

About two dozen teens and young adults were hospitalized following the attack in Ciudad Juarez, one of the deadliest cities in the world located across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Grieving witnesses and family members told The Associated Press yesterday they thought the victims, mostly residents of the housing complex where the attack occurred, had no ties to drug traffickers.

"It must have been a huge mistake," said Martha Lujan, who lives at the housing complex.

The young adults had gathered to watch a boxing match, Lujan said, when two trucks pulled up loaded with armed men who opened fire.

Ten people were killed at the scene and other three died at local hospitals, Chihuahua State Attorney Patricia Gonzales said.

The bodies of the victims, whose ages ranged from 15 to 20, lay scattered around the house where the attack happened.

Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.3 million people, is home to several drug cartel bosses who are battling for turf as thousands of troops and federal police try to stop them. More than 2,250 people were killed there last year alone.