Drug streetgang hitmen killed a married police couple in northern Mexico

Suspected drug gang hitmen killed a married police couple in northern Mexico on Wednesday, the latest law enforcement murders in the country's gruesome war against drug cartels, police said.Gunmen in a car shot dead the two state-level police officers as they were leaving their house in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas."They found the man's body in the doorway of the house and the woman on the sidewalk," said a police spokesman, who said drug hitmen were believed to have committed the murders.In the past three days, drug gangs have killed five police officers across Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juarez is located, despite the deployment of 3,000 troops and 500 federal police in the state. Some 30 police officers have been killed in Ciudad Juarez this year, police said.President Felipe Calderon has sent 25,000 troops and federal police to quell the drug war across Mexico since taking office in December 2006, making big narcotics seizures and arresting drug kingpins.But violence is still rising as drug gangs fight each other and target troops and police.Gangland killings have surged in Mexico in recent weeks and more than 1,400 people have been killed in drug violence this year. Drug violence killed more than 2,500 people in 2007 as rival gangs fought over smuggling routes to the United States.