CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - About a dozen hooded gunmen burst into a Mexican rehabilitation clinic near the U.S. border on Wednesday, lining up patients before killing 17 of them.
Drug gangs have targeted rehab clinics in the manufacturing city of Ciudad Juarez across from El Paso, Texas, accusing them of protecting dealers from rival gangs.
The attack was one of the deadliest in President Felipe Calderon's three-year war against drug cartels, despite the presence of 10,000 troops and federal police in Ciudad Juarez who constantly patrol the city's streets.
The suspected hitmen stormed their way into the drug and alcohol rehab clinic in Ciudad Juarez and forced patients into a line in a corridor before shooting them, the army and the El Diario newspaper said.
"Armed men shot at about 20 people, killing 17 of them and injuring three," said army spokesman Enrique Torres.
In a separate attack on Wednesday, gunmen killed the deputy police chief in Calderon's home state of Michoacan in western Mexico.
Jose Manuel Revueltas, appointed just two weeks ago, was intercepted by heavily armed men in two vehicles as he drove down a busy avenue in the state capital, Morelia, a few blocks from police headquarters, police said.
Revueltas, 38, and his two bodyguards died in the intense gunfire that also killed a man traveling on a bus.
Revueltas was a close aide of Michoacan's leftist governor, Leonel Godoy. Calderon has placed a heavy military presence in the state.
Calderon has staked his presidency on crushing the cartels whose brazen fight for control of smuggling routes into the United States worries Washington and has killed more than 13,000 people since late 2006.
U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged full support for Calderon's drug war but the $1.4 billion promised to Mexico in 2007 to help fight the powerful cartels is only trickling in, with $214 million so far released for equipment and training.
Seventeen people have been killed after gunmen stormed a drug rehab centre in the city of Ciudad Juarez on the United States-Mexico border. Around a dozen gunmen entered the clinic and lined up patients against a wall before killing seventeen of them. Three others were injured in the attack. Around 1,400 people have been killed in drug related violence in the city this year alone.

This is not the first time drug rehab centres have been targeted before in Ciudad Juarez. In the past, dealers have been accused of using the centres to protect their members from rival cartels. Mexican President  has fought to bring an end to the cartels. He said during his annual state of the union address "As never before, we have weakened the logistical and financial structure of crime".  

In a separate attack deputy police chief Jose Manuel Revuelta was murdered by several heavily armed men as he was driving in . Two cars intercepted his vehicle just blocks from the police headquarters. Revuelta had only been appointed to the position two weeks ago.