State Police Commander, 3 Others Killed in Southern Mexico

Men armed with rifles killed a police commander Thursday in the capital of the restive southern Mexico state of Guerrero, and officers pursuing the suspected attackers killed three people about two hours later, authorities said.

Officials of the state attorney's office said at a news conference that a state police regional chief of detectives, David Urquizo Molina, was shot dead in the city Chilpancingo. He had left his home and was driving to work when he was intercepted by at least four individuals and killed by fire from assault rifles.

According to the briefing, police received reports of armed men in another part of the city and when officers arrived at the site, a gunbattle erupted in which three assailants were killed and three more were wounded and taken into custody. One police officer was wounded.

Three other adults and one youth were detained. The prosecutors' office said the youth was a lookout who had reported on Urquizo Molina's movements.

Officials said four assault rifles were seized.

While authorities did not say which gang was involved in the shootings, Guerrero state has been wracked with violence as competing drug cartels clash frequently with police and soldiers.

Meanwhile, a Mexican judge has issued an order to extradite fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to the United States -- if he is recaptured after his jailbreak, authorities said Thursday.

The federal judge in Mexico City accepted a petition made by the attorney general's office on Wednesday, almost three weeks after Guzman broke out of a maximum-security prison by slipping down a tunnel on July 11.