12 bodies found in clandestine graves in northern Mexico

Mexican authorities have discovered 12 bodies buried in clandestine graves in Mexico's northern Chihuahua state, officials said Thursday.

Authorities discovered 11 graves containing 12 skeletons in Ascension municipality near the US border, the state prosecutor's office said in a statement.

"The discovery was made during tracking operations that took place on December 18, 19 and 20," it said.

"The unidentified skeletons and evidence were transferred to the laboratories of the Forensic Medical Service" to the city of Ciudad Juarez, it said.

Chihuahua has been hit for years by violence linked to organized crime as a route for drug trafficking and the smuggling of migrants to the United States.

It has recorded 3,927 missing persons since 1952, according to official figures. Jalisco and Tamaulipas, the states hit hardest by violence, have recorded more than 13,000 missing persons each in the same period.

Mexico has seen more than 450,000 people killed in drug-related violence since the government deployed the army to combat trafficking in 2006, according to official figures.