More arrests in Honduras bus attack

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Authorities on Saturday announced the arrest of two additional suspects in an attack on a bus that killed 28 passengers and wounded 14, while thousands of soldiers searched for more of the gunmen and families buried the victims.

Six children and 22 adults died Thursday when suspected gang members wielding assault rifles cornered a city bus in the San Pedro Sula suburb of Chamelecon, 125 miles north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, and sprayed it with gunfire.

The attack on a busload of commuters and Christmas shoppers stunned a country known for lawlessness and has made the government's anticrime campaign resemble an open war between street gangs and authorities.

Services for the victims were held on Christmas Day, as about 2,000 soldiers combed the slums and outskirts of San Pedro Sula for those responsible.

Suspected gang member Alexis Ramirez, 23, was arrested in San Pedro shortly after the attack while driving a car containing two assault rifles, two pistols and ammunition, officials said.

Authorities said Saturday that two suspected gang members arrested in Cofradia, about 10 miles east of San Pedro, have been linked to the attack.

Deputy Police Commissioner Wilmer Torres said Ramirez is a member of the Mara Salvatrucha, a ruthless youth gang known for committing shock killings, and that the car he drove resembled a car at the scene of the attack.

In a message left on the bus' windshield, the gunmen said they were part of a revolutionary group opposed to the death penalty, one of the main campaign issues in next year's presidential campaign.

"I express to the families of the victims that Honduras cries for them," President Ricardo Maduro said. The government would donate wood caskets and $550 to the victims' families, Maduro said, and also announced assistance for children orphaned by the attack.

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