Hitmen assassinate a top Mexican policeman

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Hired hitmen, one wielding a pistol with a silencer, shot dead one of Mexico's top federal police officers at his home on Thursday, in a blow to President Felipe Calderon's fight against drug cartels.

Three gunmen waited for regional commissioner Edgar Millan at his house in the capital and shot him nine times as he came home early in the morning and opened the door, government officials said.

"They were hunting him," a spokesman for the Security Ministry said.

Mexican media said the attackers, one of whom was caught by Millan's bodyguards, were professional killers hired by the powerful Sinaloa cartel, headed by Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman. The man arrested had two pistols, one with a silencer, and was wearing a latex glove.

Millan, who worked closely with the United States, was the head of operations for a federal police force known as the PFP and was in charge of coordinating large-scale operations to break organized crime rings, including drug trafficking.

Calderon has sent thousands of troops and federal police to take on drug gangs near the U.S. border and in other parts of Mexico since he took office in December 2006.

The president's office condemned the "cowardly murder of an exemplary public servant who was committed to the safety of Mexican families."

Washington's ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza, called Millan a hero and said his death would "inspire an even deeper commitment by those brave men and women, on both sides of the border, who continue to confront the criminal cartels."

Millan scuffled with his attackers as they shot him at close range, El Universal newspaper said.

The police chief took a leading role in the arrest in January of about 12 Sinaloa cartel gunmen. The cartel was rumored to have formed a "special forces" team of killers preparing high-level hits to retaliate against the government for launching an offensive against drug traffickers.

He also spoke at a news conference last week to announce the arrest of 13 other drug gunmen in the Sinaloan capital Culiacan.

Last year, there were more than 2,500 drug killings across Mexico and over 1,100 people have died this year as the drug gangs fight each other and the security forces.

Earlier this week, drug hitmen killed Saul Pena, a senior police officer in Ciudad Juarez, even though the army had deployed troops in the violent city across the border from El Paso, Texas. Pena was due to be named one of city's five police commanders.

Last week, two other senior policemen were killed in Mexico City.

(Additional reporting by Cyntia Barrera Diaz; Editing by Eric Walsh)