Mexico military attacked, roads blocked in Sinaloa amid fear of violence after cartel leader arrests

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican authorities said Thursday there have been attacks on military personnel and roads blocked with vehicles in northern Sinaloa state.

The state police department said the violence broke out in an area just north of the state capital, Culiacan. The state is home to the drug cartel of the same name, and similar violence has broken out in the past whenever a cartel leader has been arrested.

However, federal authorities said they had no immediate information on any such arrest.

Local media showed images of burning vehicles blocking roads, but authorities did not confirm that.

"We are aware that military personnel suffered an attack," the Sinaloa state police department wrote in its social media accounts. "We are also aware that roads have been blocked with vehicles."

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State Gov. Rubén Rocha wrote that assailants had set two vehicles on fire "with the aim of blocking authorities." He called for calm, but did not specify the motives of the attack or if there were victims.

Local media showed video and photos of the vehicles in flames. Cartels in Mexico often use that tactic to prevent police or military units from reaching a given area.

Despite the chaos, the Secretary of Public Education in Sinaloa released a statement Thursday night saying classes would be held as planned on Friday.

There have been fears that wider violence might break out in Sinaloa following recent detentions of top Sinaloa drug lords.

In late July, Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, apparently kidnapped Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada - an older drug boss from a rival faction of the cartel - forcing him onto the plane and flying him north.

The younger Guzmán had apparently planned to turn himself in, and took the elder Zambada along for reasons that are not known.