Xalapa, Mexico (ANTARA News/AFP) - Fourteen people died, including two soldiers, in a six-hour shootout between Mexican security forces and armed men in eastern Veracruz state overnight, the army said Friday.

An anonymous caller alerted soldiers to a suspected safe house on the outskirts of the city of Xalapa, the state capital, where they were met by gunfire, army spokesman general Rene Carlos Aguilar said.

The shootout left 12 suspected attackers and two soldiers dead, Aguilar told a news conference.

Violent attacks, blamed mostly on drug gangs, have surged in certain areas of Mexico in recent years, particularly on the northern border with the United States.

Some 34,612 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon launched a clampdown on organized crime, involving tens of thousands of troops, in 2006, according to official figures released this week. (S008/K004)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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