MEXICAN President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (Amlo) blamed the United States on Thursday for the surge in cartel violence terrorising the northern state of Sinaloa which has left at least 30 people dead in the past week.

Two warring factions of the Sinaloa cartel have clashed in the state capital of Culiacan in what appears to be a fight for power since two of its leaders were arrested in the US in late July. Teams of gunmen have shot at each other and the security forces.

Meanwhile, dead bodies continued to pop up around the city. On one busy street corner, cars drove by pools of blood leading to a body in a car mechanic shop, while heavily armed police in black masks loaded up another body stretched out on a side street of the Sinaloan city.

Asked at his morning briefing if the US government was “jointly responsible” for this violence in Sinaloa, the president said: “Yes, of course ... for having carried out this operation.”

The recent surge in cartel warfare had been expected after Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, landed near El Paso, Texas on July 25 in a small plane with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

During his morning news briefing, Amlo had claimed American authorities “carried out that operation” to capture Mr Zambada and that “it was totally illegal,and agents from the Department of Justice were waiting for Mr Mayo.”

“If we are now facing instability and clashes in Sinaloa, it is because they [the US government] made that decision,” he said.

He added that there “cannot be a co-operative relationship if they take unilateral decisions” like this. Mexican prosecutors have said they were considering bringing treason charges against those involved in the plan to arrest Mr Zambada.

Later in the day President-elect Claudia Sheinbaumm said “we can never accept that there is no communication or collaboration.”