Jamaica: 30 dead in drug gang battle

Thousands of heavily armed police and soldiers barged past barricades into Jamaica's most violent slums today, clashing with die-hard defenders of a gang leader sought by the US, leaving at least 30 people dead.

Jamaica’s security forces, reeling from bold attacks by masked gangsters loyal to underworld boss Christopher “Dudus” Coke, were in the midst of a day-long assault in the heart of capital West Kingston’s ramshackle slums, long afflicted by gang strife.