President Trump wages war on Mexican drug cartels

President Donald Trump has waged a war on Mexican drug cartels after three American mothers and six children from a Mormon community based in northern Mexico were massacred by cartel gunmen. 

The victims, who belonged to the LeBaron family, were ambushed about eight miles apart in the Mexican border state of Sonora on Monday while traveling in a convoy of three SUVs. 

At the time of the attack, 17 of the family members were traveling from the La Mora religious community where they live, which is a decades-old settlement in Sonora state founded as part of an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many of the church's members were born in Mexico and thus have dual citizenship.    

Mexico's top security official Alfonso Durazo blamed cartel gunmen on Tuesday for the attack and said they may have mistaken the group's large SUVs for rival gangs.