Drug cartel shoots down Mexican military helicopter in war-like scene
Clash was part of a spasm of violence launched by the Jalisco New Generation Drug Cartel against military and police.
A blast and gunfire rattled a hamlet in western Mexico where a drug cartel brought down a military helicopter in an intense battle that left three troops dead and three more missing.
Witnesses said around a dozen sport-utility vehicles were driving down a dirt road with their lights off early on Friday while the helicopter followed closely behind in a rural area of Jalisco state.
Suddenly, people heard a "loud explosion and then you could see the bursts of gunfire," said a young woman who lives in the hamlet and declined to give her name over security concerns.
The war-like scene was the most intense fight in a spasm of violence launched by the Jalisco New Generation Drug Cartel against a military and police operation that was launched against the gang the same day.
Residents and an army commander who requested anonymity said the gunmen appeared to have used a weapon similar to a rocket launcher to take down the aircraft. "The explosion produced a big black smoke cloud," another one of the Villa Vieja settlement's 60 residents said.
A federal official was unable to confirm the type of weapon used to force down the Cougar helicopter but said it was of "high-calibre, with the firepower to take down a helicopter".