MEXICAN ARMY SCOURS JUAREZ FOR GUNS, PLANS MORE POLICE TRAINING

The Mexican army is conducting house-to-house searches for weapons and
will train Juarez police in the use of automatic weapons and urban
combat while the bloodshed in the city has worsened in recent days.

There have been 60 deaths since a resurgence in street ambushes,
machine-gun slayings, police killings and other mob-style violence
began Friday, including seven homicides as of early Wednesday evening.

Juarez police were told to take "extreme precautions" after three more
off-duty officers, the latest slain Wednesday afternoon, were killed
in separate attacks, authorities said. A total of four officers have
died violently since Friday.

In El Paso, police officials said a man fatally shot last month in
front of his home on the far East Side was a midlevel member of the
Juarez drug cartel.

"What we are worried about at this moment is that they are
assassinating police," Guillermo Dowell Delgado, the Juarez version of
a city manager, said in a statement. "We would like to be in a state
of peace and calm but that has not been possible."

Police captain Juan Gilberto Vazquez Briones, 40, was shot to death at
5:40 p.m. Tuesday while in his Ford Explorer at a gas station, police
said.

At 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, police officer Juan Abel Ronquillo Payan, 33,
was killed when he was shot in the head and back while driving a
pickup, police said.

At 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, police officer Bernardo Arostegui Hermosillo,
28, was slain while driving a Chevrolet Impala in a shooting that
wounded a 25-year-old woman passenger thought to be his wife, police
said.

The slain officers are not recent police academy graduates but
experienced officers who passed exams during the last year intended to
weed out corruption, city officials said.

Not all victims in the renewed violence have been the intended
targets.

A 7-year-old girl was shot in the leg Wednesday afternoon in a
shooting that killed Raquel Ceniceros Perez, 39, on a sidewalk on
Sierra Picachos street, Chihuahua state police said.

The connection, if any, between the girl, who was hospitalized in
stable condition, and the woman was not revealed.

Just a week ago, city and business leaders were touting a drop in
homicides since the arrival of thousands of Mexican army and federal
police reinforcements in March.

The federal forces are still there, but the violence has
returned.

In an effort to disarm criminals, the Mexican army has been searching
house-to-house for firearms.

Soldiers ride along streets using a substance detector that alerts
them to air particles linked to firearms or illegal drugs. The
detector is also used to check people and vehicles at the
international bridges.

If the detector issues an alert, soldiers ask residents for permission
to search the home or for the residents to voluntarily turn in
weapons, explained Enrique Torres, spokesman for Joint Operation
Chihuahua, the federal government anti-crime effort.

"If there is no favorable response," Torres said, "there is the
presumption there are weapons in the house, and we get a search warrant."

The military tactic, which has been the source of complaints about
unlawful searches, is being credited for many seizures of weapons
stockpiles found in abandoned buildings or parked vehicles.

Officials had said that military units now working alongside Juarez
police were scheduled to leave in September, but Juarez Mayor Jose
Reyes Ferriz this week asked the army to stay an additional six months
until the police force is strong enough.

Next week, the Mexican army will start training a group of 600 Juarez
police officers in the use of automatic weapons and urban combat.

Juarez police are expected to become the first municipal police force
in Mexico to be allowed to carry automatic weapons, city officials
said.

Officials have said the police force needs to be strong enough to
regain and maintain control of the streets of the city, which has
become among the deadliest in the Americas.

After extensive recruitment campaigns, the Juarez police force has
grown to 2,700, and an additional 400 are expected to be recruited
later this year to reach the goal of 3,000 officers by the end of the
year, the mayor said.

More than 600 people have been killed in the Juarez area this year,
for a total of more than 2,200 since January 2008 when a war erupted
between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels for control of the Juarez
"plaza," or territory.