In Mexico, the government has vowed to retake control of a Western state after days of fighting between masked vigilantes and drug gangs. <br /><br />Vigilante gunmen in Michoacan state have advanced deeper into territory controlled by the Knights Templar cartel, converging on one of the group’s strongholds. <br /><br />Amid fears of a bloody urban battle, Mexico’s interior chief, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, urged the fighters to go home. <br /><br />“To self-defence groups I say go back to where you came from, go back to being citizens. Security is the job of the government, ‘’ the minister said<br /><br />In the town of Nueva Italia, gunmen were filmed detaining police who they accuse of working with the drug traffickers. <br /><br />Despite years of battles between federal troops and drug gangs in Mexico, Michoacan state’s murder rate has nearly doubled since 2006.
