MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Hooded gunmen in military garb armed with submachine
                  guns shot and killed 12 villagers and wounded three in the western state of
                  Sinaloa, authorities there said Thursday.

                  About a dozen attackers stole a truck in the village of Limoncito de Ayala and
                  went door to door Wednesday night, rounding up the victims and forcing them
                  into the truck at gunpoint, witnesses said, according to the state police report.

                  All the victims were men, one of them only 12 years old, and all were farmers or
                  bricklayers.

                  One of the bricklayers jumped out of the truck and tried to run. The report said
                  the gunmen shot him to death, then moved the truck some blocks away and shot
                  the rest. They fled in a waiting pickup truck.

                  The town is about 75 miles south of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state and a
                  major center of cocaine trafficking. But investigators said there was no
                  immediate indication the killings were related to the drug trade. Police were
                  investigating but said they had no clue as to the motive. The attackers escaped.

                  Shortly after taking office in December, President Vicente Fox sent 1,000
                  officers to fight drug-related violence in Culiacan after Sinaloa Gov. Juan Millan
                  said he could no longer fight the scourge on his own.

                  Fox also chose the state capital last month to launch a nationwide war on
                  narcotics trafficking and organized crime.

                  The witnesses said the attackers wore black boots, green military fatigues, had
                  their faces covered with black ski masks and carried automatic weapons.

                  Police picked up more than five dozen spent cartridges at the scene, the report
                  said.

                  The government news agency Notimex said the rest of the villagers fled to
                  surrounding hills where they spent the night.

                  Notimex said the three wounded were rushed to a hospital by a salesman who
                  was driving by in a utility vehicle.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.