14 policemen killed by suspected cartel gunmen in west Mexico

The police officers had gone to a home in the town of El Aguaje in Aguililla municipality to enforce a judicial order when several armed civilians fired on them.

El Aguaje: At least 14 Mexican police officers were killed and three others wounded on Monday in an ambush by gunmen in the state of Michoacan, a western region where violence attributed to drug cartels has spiked in recent months.

The officers had gone to a home in the town of El Aguaje in Aguililla municipality to enforce a judicial order when "several armed civilians fired on them," Michoacan's state security department said in a statement.

Images published in Mexican media showed vehicles burning in the middle of a highway and messages apparently signed by Jalisco New Generation, one of Mexico's most powerful and ascendant cartels.

Mexican authorities condemned the ambush. "No attack on the police will go unpunished, and this was a cowardly, devious attack because they laid an ambush in this area of the road," Michoacan's Governor Silvano Aureoles said.

Michoacan, an important avocado-growing state, has recently seen a jump in violence that has brought back memories of the bloodiest days of Mexico's drug war between 2006 and 2012.

In August, police found 19 bodies in the town of Uruapan, including nine hung from a bridge.

Later, an area roughly 45 miles (70 kilometers) north of Aguililla was the scene of fierce clashes between members of Jalisco New Generation and regional self-defence groups.