Dec 28 2006
SIXTEEN DEAD IN MAFIA TERROR RAMPAGE IN RIO DE JANEIRO
A night of terror staged by drug mafias left at least 16 persons dead in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian media reports said Thursday.
The reports said that in the late-night violence, heavily-armed groups of drug mafia members drove around the city, attacking police patrols and guardposts with gunfire and grenades.
The attackers also stopped several passenger buses and set them on fire.
The television channel Globonews spoke of ‘four hours of uninterrupted terror’ in the city.
Most of the deaths occurred in the northern part of the city when an overland passenger bus travelling from the state of Espirito Santo to the city of Sao Paulo was stopped by 30 masked men and set ablaze.
At least seven charred bodies were removed later from the wreckage, reports said.
Also among the dead were several policemen and one mafia gang suspect, as well as a female street vendor. At least one child was badly wounded by bullets.
Gunbattles between police and the attackers raged for hours, while three men had been arrested.
The city of Rio de Janeiro was set to issue an official statement on the violence later Thursday.
It was the worst such violence since last May, when within a few days’ time around 120 persons were killed in mafia attacks in the city of Sao Paulo followed by retaliatory attacks by police.
In that violence, attacks against police were carried out by a mafia group called ‘First Capital Commando’ which was established by drug bosses still sitting behind bars.
It was not immediately known which group may have been behind the attacks in Rio
| dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur Dec 28, 2006, 14:00 GMT http://news.monstersandcritics.com/americas/news/article_1237499.php/Sixteen_dead_in_mafia_terror_rampage_in_Rio_de_Janeiro__Roundup_
