Nine headless bodies found in Mexican border town

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - Nine decapitated bodies were discovered on Sunday in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, a hot spot in an increasingly gruesome war between drug cartels.

The bodies, along with their removed heads, had been left in a vacant lot beside a factory, witnesses and police told reporters.

Mexico is facing spiraling drug violence, especially along its border with the United States. Cities like Tijuana, south of San Diego, are seeing horrendous levels of crime, with bodies set on fire, cut up and dumped in acid and strung over highways.

Beheadings, kidnappings and daylight shootings have become common as vicious drug cartels fight over smuggling routes into the United States.

President Felipe Calderon has sent some 40,000 troops and federal police across Mexico to try to stop the killings. But despite major drug seizures and arrests, the killings continue.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; editing by Mohammad Zargham)