中国网站品牌栏目（频道）
Three Americans were fatally shot over the weekend in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's notorious murder capital and a focal point of its brutal drug violence, United States officials said on Monday.
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said it was not clear if the three Americans were killed in deliberate attacks, or if they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"We offer our condolences to the families of the victims," he said.
Crowley said Washington is "providing all possible assistance" to Mexico in the investigation of the murders.
"Two (US) citizens were fatally shot early Sunday, close to the Zaragoza International Bridge" linking Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas, Crowley said.
"And in a separate incident, another US citizen was fatally wounded in Ciudad Juarez itself," he said.
Meanwhile, authorities in Mexico said the three Americans were two brothers and a woman who were killed Sunday while driving toward the bridge straddling the border.
Mexican officials said a 14-year-old boy was also wounded in the incident.
According to Mexican news reports, the men were aged 23 and 15 and the woman was the wife of the older brother.
Officials in the state of Chihuahua said the shooting took place about a kilometer from the bridge by gunmen with assault weapons who fired more than 50 rounds, the office said in a statement.
"The three bodies were recovered with help from US authorities to be taken to El Paso," according to the statement.
The three murder victims were of Hispanic origin, the office said without mentioning whether the 14-year-old boy wounded in the action was also a US citizen.
The fatal shootings come as Mexico announced that its military arrested a fourth suspect in the March 13 murder of a US consular employee and her husband, a crime that also took place in Ciudad Juarez.
Mexico's army arrested Miguel Angel Nevarez, alias "Glasses," on Saturday night, for his suspected role in the killing of an American working at the consulate and her husband and the husband of another staff member, the ministry said in a statement.
（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）
Todd Balazovic is a reporter for the Metro Section of China Daily. Born in Mineapolis Minnesota in the US, he graduated from Central Michigan University and has worked for the China Daily for one year.
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