MEXICO CITY - ANOTHER 44 people were killed in Mexico's blood-soaked drug war this weekend, including four police officers in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, officials said on Monday.

Drug-related deaths have more than doubled this year, to more than 5,300 killed, according to Mexico's top prosecutor, despite a government clampdown involving the deployment of 36,000 troops across the country.

Most of the weekend's deaths occurred in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, which is a hub for drug traffickers and the scene of some 1,500 violent deaths this year alone.

Four police officers were assassinated in almost simultaneous attacks overnight from Sunday to Monday, and a hitlist was found naming future police targets, local police said.

'One attack, with AK-47s, was on a police post protecting the General Hospital, where two police died,' police said.

An armed commando shot dead a third officer in a watch post and a fourth was shot dead during a patrol near a border bridge.

Meanwhile, a list naming 28 threatened police officers was found near the bodies of another five dead men.

Outside Ciudad Juarez, violence also rocked the state capital of Chihuahua and across the northern Sierra Tarahumara region.

Medical staff, veterans and students took part in a 24-hour strike and demonstrations on Friday in Ciudad Juarez to protest the city's drug violence.

Cartels, including the powerful Juarez and Sinaloa gangs, are fighting for control of key trafficking routes into the United States in Chihuahua state and across Mexico. -- AFP