Death toll rises to 26 in Mexican drug rehab center attack

IRAPUATO, Mexico -- The killing of 26 people in an unregistered drug rehabilitation center in central Mexico is the deadliest such attack in a decade and has led to calls for change in a prosperous state that has become a cartel battleground. Authorities in the city of Irapuato in Guanajuato state on Thursday raised the death toll from 24 after two of the seven people injured in the attack died. Police in Guanajuato state said Wednesday's attack occurred at a modest two-story house on the outskirts of Irapuato. Apparently the attackers shot every male at the rehab center, letting only the females go. Rosa Alba Santoyo, three of whose sons were killed in the attack, said a female addict at the center said the gunmen told the women to get out, before gunning down the men. Santoyo said two of her sons, construction workers aged 29 and 39, were at the center because they had problems with drugs. Her youngest son, 27, had been at the center previously and recovered, and had only returned Wednesday to bring his brothers soft drinks when the gunmen killed all three of them. Two of her sons were in a photograph of the massacre on the front page of the local newspaper. Their bullet-ridden bodies lay next to the other victims, prone on the floor of the center amid piles of blankets. They were apparently made to lie down before being massacred. Her youngest son was found shot to death at another spot...MORE