Trump Offers to Help Mexico ‘Wage War on the Drug Cartels,’ ‘Wipe Them Off the Face of the Earth’

'You need an army to defeat an army': President Trump wages WAR on Mexican drug cartels to 'wipeout monsters' after three American Mormon mothers and six of their children are EXECUTED and their bodies left in burned out SUVs

At least nine U.S. citizens, including six children, who live in the Mexican border state of Sonora were killed in a shooting attack Monday
Rhonita Maria LeBaron, died along with her 6-month-old twins and her two other children, aged 10 and 12
Christina Langford Johnson, Dawna Langford and two of Dawna's children, aged 11 and three, were also killed
The victims belong to the LeBaron family - a breakaway Mormon community that settled in the hills of northern Mexico decades ago
At the time of the attack, 17 of the family members were traveling in three cars from the settlement
According to relatives, drug cartel gunman opened fire and torched vehicles as the victims burned to death
Mexico's top security official Alfonso Durazo said on Tuesday cartel gunmen may have mistaken the group's large SUVs for rival gangs
Nine of the family members were slaughtered in the massacre and one child was still missing
Six children were wounded in the attack and five have since been transferred to hospitals in Phoenix, Arizona

President Donald Trump has waged a war on Mexican drug cartels after three American mothers and six children from a Mormon community based in northern Mexico were massacred by cartel gunmen.

The victims, who belonged to the LeBaron family, were ambushed about eight miles apart in the Mexican border state of Sonora on Monday while traveling in a convoy of three SUVs.

At the time of the attack, 17 of the family members were traveling from the La Mora religious community where they live, which is a decades-old settlement in Sonora state founded as part of an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many of the church's members were born in Mexico and thus have dual citizenship.

Mexico's top security official Alfonso Durazo blamed cartel gunmen on Tuesday for the attack and said they may have mistaken the group's large SUVs for rival gangs.

Nine of the LeBaron family members, who have ties to Utah, were slaughtered in the massacre and one child was still missing, Mexican authorities said. Six children were wounded in the attack and five have since been transferred to hospitals in Phoenix, Arizona.

The slaughter of U.S. citizens on Mexican soil quickly became an international issue with Trump on Tuesday vowing to help Mexico wage a war on its drug cartels. He said in a series of tweets that the LeBaron family had gotten caught up between 'two vicious drug cartels'. Mexican officials have not confirmed if this was the case.

'If Mexico needs or requests help in cleaning out these monsters, the United States stands ready, willing & able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively,' Trump tweeted. 'The great new President of Mexico has made this a big issue, but the cartels have become so large and powerful that you sometimes need an army to defeat an army!

'This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth. We merely await a call from your great new president!'

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador responded to Trump's tweet, saying 'war is the worst thing that can happen' and said he doesn't believe lethal force would solve them problem.

'We declared war, and it didn't work,' Lopez Obrador said at a press conference, referring to the policies of previous administrations.'That is not an option.'