Mexico's missing students killed, burnt: Attorney General

Relatives of missing students of the Ayotzinapa Teacher Training College Raul Isidro Burgos attend a news conference, where parents of the students accused the government of trying to close the case before it had been properly solved, at the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center in Mexico City, Jan 27, 2015. Seen in the front, are images of some of the missing students of the college. [Photo/Agencies]

MEXICO CITY - Various evidence has proved that the 43 college students, missing in Mexico's southern state of Guerrero last year, were murdered and incinerated, said Mexico's top prosecutor on Tuesday.

Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told a press conference that testimony from some perpetrators and results of police investigations have led to the conclusion.

"That is the historical truth of the events," Murillo said, reaffirming the government's preliminary assertion following a clash between the students and local police in September 2014 in the city of Iguala in Mexico's violence-torn southern state of Guerrero. The policemen are believed to have links with drug gang members.

The conclusion is based on testimony from 39 police officers, 487 investigations and 386 statements, all of which have led to the arrests of 99 suspects, said Murillo.

Felipe Rodriguez Salgado, known as "El Cepillo" or "The Brush," recently captured in central Mexico, also confirmed the testimony and accounts of those arrested previously, said the prosecutor.

Rodriguez, a member of a Guerrero-based criminal ring called Guerreros Unidos, told the authorities that he and another dozen men were ordered to go to an area known as Loma de Coyote, where local police from Iguala and nearby Cocula handed over the students.