reuters:

Suspected drug cartel killers in Mexico dumped 49 headless bodies on a highway near the northern city of Monterrey, a sickening atrocity that prompted the government to condemn the “inhuman” violence plaguing the country.

The corpses of 43 men and six women, whose hands and feet had also been cut off, were found in a pile on a highway in the municipality of Cadereyta Jimenez early on Sunday, officials from the state of Nuevo Leon said.

The Nuevo Leon government said the notorious Zetas drug gang had claimed responsibility for the bloodbath, one of the worst to hit Mexico during its struggle against the powerful cartels.

The massacre follows several other mass slayings in Mexico. Many have occurred in the north, where the Zetas have waged a war against rival groups for control of smuggling routes into the United States, the biggest market for illicit drugs.

READ MORE: 49 headless corpses found in northern Mexico