Hitmen kill Mexican mayor in drug war state

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Suspected drug hitmen killed the mayor of a small town in northern Mexico on Sunday in a region where two car bombs exploded last week and the bodies of 72 murdered migrant workers were found.

Mayor Marco Antonio Leal was shot dead by gunmen in SUVs as he drove through his rural municipality of Hidalgo near the Gulf of Mexico in Tamaulipas state, the local attorney general's office said. Leal's 4-year-old daughter was slightly wounded in the attack, a spokesman said.

It was not immediately clear why Leal, a member of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, was targeted. But Tamaulipas has become one of Mexico's bloodiest flashpoints since the start of the year as rival hitmen from the Gulf cartel and its former armed wing, the Zetas, fight over smuggling routes into the United States.

Leal spent Sunday morning in a meeting with other Tamaulipas PRI mayors and the governor-elect, also a member of the PRI, which has long been dominant in the state.

Gunmen threw grenades at the town hall earlier this year and Hidalgo's former mayor, also from the PRI, narrowly survived an assassination attempt this month.

President Felipe Calderon, a conservative from the ruling National Action Party, or PAN, condemned the attack and vowed to continue his fight against drug gangs.

"This cowardly crime and the reprehensible violent events recently in the region strengthen our commitment to continue fighting the criminal groups that seek to terrify families (in Tamaulipas)," Calderon said in a statement.

Drug gangs killed a mayor from Calderon's party near the wealthy industrial city of Monterrey in neighboring Nuevo Leon state this month, as attacks on public officials grow.

In a sign of escalating drug war violence, two car bombs exploded in Tamaulipas' state capital, Ciudad Victoria, on Friday, three days after marines found the bodies of 72 migrants gunned down at a ranch in the state.

The blasts, the second and third modest bombs planted in a vehicle this month in Ciudad Victoria and the fourth in Mexico since July, caused no casualties but damaged buildings.

Hitmen threw three grenades in the center of the manufacturing city of Reynosa, also in Tamaulipas and across from McAllen, Texas on Saturday, injuring 15 people, Reynosa city hall said.

Gunmen murdered a popular candidate for Tamaulipas governor in June in Mexico's worst political killing in 16 years.

Calderon has blamed the surge in violence in Tamaulipas on the split between the Gulf and Zetas gang but has vowed to crush the cartels.

More than 28,000 people have died in drug violence since Calderon launched his war on drugs in late 2006, prompting fears that bloodshed could undermine tourism and investment as Mexico slowly recovers from its worst recession since 1932.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott; editing by Missy Ryan)