Scores dead in Mexico prison riot

A riot between rival drug gang factions at a jail near the violence-ravaged Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez has left up to 20 people dead

A riot between rival drug gang factions at a jail near the violence-ravaged Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez has left up to 20 people dead -- including inmates and federal police.

The prison riot -- which involved firearms-- is the latest drama to engulf the city, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, after an explosion in drug violence that killed 250 people last month alone.

Ciudad Juarez has become the worst flashpoint in a two-year-old drug war, with some of Mexico's most powerful cartels fighting over prime smuggling turf.

In the aftermath of the riot, ambulances parked outside the prison -- home to about 1,200 inmates-- to carry off casualties as plumes of brown smoke curled from the jail's windows.

Troops have poured into Ciudad Juarez since the weekend and the mayor's office said the Mexican army will now take control of the local police force as well as the prisons.

Jon Decker, Reuters.