CIUDAD JUAREZ: Thirteen people were killed in the past 24 hours in northern Chihuahua state, including five people strafed by gunfire at a car-wash, authorities reported Friday.

'Gunmen aboard two vehicles killed five people, including a woman,' who were inside a car in a car-wash parking lot in Chihuahua, the state justice department said.

Elsewhere in the city, three people were killed, including an eight-year-old boy, in another shooting incident.

Two brothers were shot to death in the town of Creel, in the southern part of the state, officials said, and three people were killed in Ciudad Juarez.

Across from the Texas city of El Paso, Ciudad Juarez has the highest murder rate of all Mexican cities, more than 2,000 so far this year, despite 8,500 troops sent by the federal government to help local police fight rampant drug-related crime. -AFP