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The officers were ambushed Friday in Culiacan, capital of the prime marijuana growing region of Sinaloa. The kilings follow the brazen, videotaped assassination of a senior police commander in Mexico City, also by suspected drug traffickers, The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday, saying more than 4,400 people have died since December 2006 when Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out assault on the country's powerful drug gangs.

Analysts said the high-profile killings may be intended to make the government and its main law enforcement agencies appear vulnerable. Gangs have been demonstrating a growing propensity for decapitating their victims and issuing threats using posters and the Internet, Mexican Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino said, adding the drugs gangs "have a clear objective to intimidate, frighten, paralyze society and, with that, force the federal government to retreat."

Mourino, however, applauded approval by the U.S. Senate of a $400 million aid package for Mexico's drug war meant to provide the Calderon government with training, telecommunications, aircraft and other equipment.

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