FACTBOX: Increasing violence in Mexico's drug war

(Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon removed Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora from office on Monday as the government's war against powerful drug gangs falters.

Following are some notable incidents of violence involving the drug cartels:

-- A dozen hooded gunmen burst into a drug rehabilitation clinic in Ciudad Juarez on the Texas border last week, and lined up patients before shooting and killing 17 of them.

-- A drug cartel in the western state of Michoacan known as La Familia tortured and killed 12 federal police officers in July, dumping their bodies beside a remote highway. A video of their murder was briefly posted on YouTube.

-- Last September, suspected members of the Zetas drug gang threw two grenades into a crowd of people celebrating Mexico's independence day in the city of Morelia. The blasts killed eight people and wounded more than 100. The attack on a mass gathering of civilians provoked talk of "narco-terrorism," reminiscent of bombings by Colombian cartels in the 1980s and 1990s.

-- The bodies of eight tortured and decapitated soldiers were found near the resort of Acapulco last December in what was seen as a brazen challenge by cartels to the government. The victims' heads were stuffed in a plastic bag and left outside a shopping center with a note saying: "For every one of us you kill, we are going to kill 10."