Only two bones identifiable in Mexico massacre: official

Mexico`s attorney general downplayed chances Monday of ever identifying charred remains attributed to the suspected massacre of 43 students, saying only two bones were salvageable for DNA tests.

Mexico City: Mexico`s attorney general downplayed chances Monday of ever identifying charred remains attributed to the suspected massacre of 43 students, saying only two bones were salvageable for DNA tests.

Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said the remains found in the southern state of Guerrero were "disintegrated" into ash by suspected gang members.

Three purported Guerreros Unidos hitmen have confessed to killing the 43 students, burning their bodies in a 14-hourlong giant bonfire, and tossing them in a river after they had received them from corrupt police officers.

The case has infuriated Mexican society, with a new protest erupting in violence in Guerrero`s Pacific resort of Acapulco on Monday.

Experts indicated that there were "two remains, only a kneecap and another piece, that have a possibility" of being matched to DNA samples, Murillo Karam told the Televisa network.

The two pieces will be sent to a lab, which "did not tell us that it could (identify them) but (said) that there was a possibility," he said.

In a news conference announcing the apparent killings on Friday, Murillo Karam said experts at Austria`s Innsbruck University would help identify the remains.

Authorities say gang-linked police shot at busloads of student teachers in the Guerrero city of Iguala on September 26, in a night of violence that left six people dead.

The police then handed the 43 abducted students to the Guerreros Unidos drug gang, prosecutors say.

During the television interview, Murillo Karam defended off-the-cuff remarks he made to end the hour-long news conference announcing the confessions on Friday, when he said "Ya me canse," which can be translated to "I`ve had enough" or "I`m tired."

Protesters have used the comment as a rallying cry, with the Twitter hashtag #YaMeCanse going viral. Demonstrators spray-painted "#I`veHadEnoughOfFear" in Spanish on the attorney general`s office building.

"When I say I`m tired, I`m saying I`m tired of this, I`m tired of this brutal violence," he said.

"Plus, I had gone more than 40 hours without sleep. I was tired and that`s the truth," Murillo Karam said, adding that he was also shaken by his inability to give closure to the parents during a meeting hours before the news conference.

"It`s not a problem of vigor. It`s a problem of emotions," he said. "Of course I want to continue and finish the case."

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