Three farmers were killed Tuesday by a bomb apparently planted in a dirt road in the cartel-dominated western Mexico state of Michoacan, marking the second time in just five days that hidden explosive devices have caused multiple fatalities in the region.

A state security official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said the blast occurred in the rural township of Tumbiscatio.

Graphic photos of the scene posted on social media suggest the blast was so powerful that it blew the farmer's truck in half and flipped it, and blew the victims' limbs off.

It was the latest instance of what appears to be an increasing use of improvised explosive devices by drug cartels battling for control of Michoacan.

It came just days after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged that an improvised explosive device killed at least four soldiers in what he called a "trap" likely set by a cartel in Michoacan.

The soldiers were killed Thursday on the outskirts of the city of Aguililla, Michoacan, López Obrador said Friday.              

He said soldiers were inspecting a camp, likely used by cartel members, when they stepped on an anti-personnel mine set in the underbrush.

In its most recent report in August, the army said attacks with roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices have risen sharply. The Defense Department said 42 soldiers, police and suspects were wounded by improvised explosive devices in the first eight months of 2023, up from 16 in all of 2022.

The army figures appeared to include only those wounded by explosive devices.

Last July, a drug cartel set off a coordinated series of seven roadway bombs in western Mexico that killed four police officers and two civilians. The governor of Jalisco state said the explosions were a trap set by the cartel to kill law enforcement personnel.

"This is an unprecedented act that shows what these drug cartels are capable of," Jalisco Gov. Enrique Alfaro wrote on his social media accounts.

Overall, 556 improvised explosive devices of all types - roadside, drone-carried and car bombs - were found in Mexico between January and August 2023. A total of 2,186 have been found during the current administration, which took office in December 2018,  the army said in n August news release.

Michoacan has been rocked by cartel violence and intimidation in recent months. Last month, two candidates for mayor — Armando Pérez and Miguel Ángel Zavala — were shot to death within hours of each other in Michoacan as experts predicted that the widening control of drug cartels in Mexico could make the election especially violent.

In January, state prosecutors said a cartel in Michoacan set up its own makeshift internet antennas — dubbed "narco-antennas" —  and told locals they had to pay to use its Wi-Fi service or they would be killed.

Last August, the Mexican government sent 1,200 troops to Michoacan after a spate of cartel violence.

Michoacan is among six states in Mexico that the U.S. State Department advises Americans to completely avoid. "Crime and violence are widespread in Michoacan state," the State Department says in its travel advisory. "U.S. citizens …have been victims of kidnapping."

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• Mexico
• Cartel