US official and husband shot dead in drug havoc

The US couple's one-year-old child survived in the back of the family's bullet-ridden car.

Lesley Enriquez, 35, and her husband, Arthur Redelfs, 34, both US citizens, were killed near the Santa Fe International bridge on the way back to their home in nearby El Paso, Texas.

Police still do not know why drug gangs ambushed two cars driving home after a children's party. In a shooting only minutes earlier a Mexican man with consular links was killed and his two children wounded.

The murders came amid a surge in bloodshed along Mexico's border with Texas and drew condemnation from the White House. Mexico's president expressed outrage and promised to find those responsible.

Mexican authorities have pointed the finger at the Aztecas street gang who act as enforcers for the Juarez drug cartel.

All three victims of the gang had just attended a children's party hosted by another consular employee.

Ten minutes earlier the husband of a Mexican employee of the consulate, Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, 37, was shot to death in his car, while his two children, aged four and seven, were wounded.

Several US citizens have been killed in Mexico's drug war, but it is very rare for American government employees to be targeted.

Nine people were killed in just one incident early on Sunday in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco as drug gangs fought.

The White House said President Barack Obama was "deeply saddened and outraged" by the killings. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said they underscored the imperative of working with Mexico to cripple the trafficking organisations.