Mexican army sends anti-mine squads to cartel turf war zone

NARANJO DE CHILA, Mexico (AP) — Special squads of Mexican army troops equipped with metal detectors and bomb suits have been deployed to the western state of Michoacan, where warring drug cartels have planted land mines or improvised explosive devices. The squads have apparently found dozens of such devices along rural roads and fields in the area around the town of Aguililla. The mines claimed their first civilian victim last week, when a farmer drove over one in his pickup truck. That explosion was fueled by a device containing ammonium nitrate. Those found so far include mines detonated by radio or telephone signal, or pressure.