2 more Mexican soldiers killed by an improvised landmine, after 2 died earlier this week

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two more members of Mexico’s armed forces have been killed by an improvised landmine, just days after two soldiers died in a similar blast, officials confirmed Thursday.

The blasts, both in the western state of Michoacan, mark an unprecedented one-week death toll from improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, planted by drug cartels in Mexico.

Carlos Torres, the interior secretary of Michoacan, said the devices, often described as powerful pipe bombs, were apparently planted around drug labs or cartel encampments. But he suggested the bombs may have been intended to ward off rival gangs, and not necessarily aimed at killing members of the armed forces.

“They place this kind of device around certain key areas, like (drug) labs or like encampments or places where organized crime exists, for their enemies or adversaries,” Torres said.

The Michoacan state government said one of the victims in the most recent blast Wednesday was an army sergeant, and the other a member of the National Guard. Torres said they died while on patrol in a southern area of the state dominated by the Jalisco drug cartel.

The National Guard is a militarized force that often patrols with the army and often includes active-duty soldiers in its ranks.

On Monday, two soldiers were killed in a similar explosion and five others were wounded in another part of the state dominated by the United Cartels gang.

Torres said more improvised mines have been located and deactivated.

The Jalisco cartel has been locked in a bloody, years-long turf battle with the United Cartels — mainly made up of a gang known as the Viagras — for control of Michoacan, which is home to both labs producing synthetic drugs like methamphetamine, and Pacific coast ports used to smuggle in drugs and the precursor chemicals used to make them.

The army had previously acknowledged suffering only six deaths from IEDs between 2018 and 2024.

Previous attacks on law enforcement have also included the use of bomb-dropping drones, and the army did not confirm whether the six previous deaths over the last six years were from drones or roadside bombs, or both.

Torres said that in the area around Buenavista, Michoacan, in the state’s southern hot lands — where Wednesday’s explosion occurred — the gangs had been known to use both landmines and small bombs dropped by drones. At leas t some civilians have also been killed by the devices.

Defense Secretary Gen. Ricardo Trevilla said Tuesday that devices like the one that exploded Monday were “very rustic.” But his description of the scene where the two soldiers died Monday suggested that it may have been a sort of grisly booby trap.

Trevilla said the army sent out a patrol to check on reports of an encampment of armed men in a rural area. The armed forces detected an area protected by stockades that appeared to be an encampment, but when soldiers approached in vehicles, they found the trail blocked by logs, so they got out and had to approach on foot.

While approaching, they spotted three dismembered bodies near the encampment, which appeared to be abandoned. But as they drew closer, a buried device exploded and struck the soldiers.

In the only previous detailed report on cartel bomb attacks in August 2023, the Mexican defense department said at that time that a total of 42 soldiers, police and suspects were wounded by IEDs in the first seven and a half months of 2023, up from 16 in all of 2022.