Official: Drug cartel targeted priest

ARCELIA, Mexico, June 17 (UPI) -- Drug cartel hit men in Mexico intentionally targeted a clergyman for the first time, Mexico's Council of Bishops reported.

The Rev. Habacuc Hernandez Benitez, 39, along with seminarians Eduardo Oregon Benitez, 19, and Silvestre Gonzalez Cambron, 21, were killed Saturday when they were gunned down in southwest Mexico, Manuel Corral, public relations secretary for the bishops council, told CNN.

The victims had been traveling in a vehicle in Arcelia, a town in the state of Guerrero, and had just left an area where they had celebrated mass, CNN reported Wednesday.

"In this case, the drug traffickers followed them and ambushed them," Corral told CNN.

Gunmen pulled up next to their vehicle and began firing, local human rights group Montan Tlachinollan said. The three men were then pulled from their vehicle and shot in the back, local reports said.

Officials said they have no motive for the killings, but said one of the seminarians may have had a family member involved in the cartels.

The newspaper El Universal reported Mexican President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 25,000 troops to bolster local police forces in his administration's fight against drug cartels, a priority since he took office in 2006.