Mexico confirms 1st apparent victim of cartel land mines

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican prosecutors say a farmer with fields on a front line between warring drug cartels has been killed by an improvised land mine — in what appears to be the first civilian death from such a weapon in the western state of Michoacan. The cartels already use trenches, pillboxes, homemade armored cars and drones modified to drop small bombs. But last week an army vehicle was disabled by an improvised explosive device planted on a road, and 11 soldiers were injured. The state prosecutor’s office said Monday that the 79-year-old farmer was killed in the township of Tepalcatepec when his pickup truck drove over an IED over the weekend. His son was injured in the blast.