MEXICO CITY — Mexican soldiers killed 19 suspected cartel members and arrested a local cartel leader following a shootout Monday in northwest Mexico, a region that has been shaken by an eruption of bloodshed between two rival factions of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel.

The arrest and the killings in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state, took place after soldiers repelled an attack by a group of more than 30 armed men, Mexico’s defense ministry said Tuesday night. The suspected cartel operatives who were not killed managed to flee the scene, the defense ministry said, while the army suffered no casualties.

The killings reflect how the escalating violence in Sinaloa is quickly shaping into a test for Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office this month vowing to continue the strategy of her predecessor in attempting to avoid armed confrontations with criminal groups in a bid to limit mass casalties. But the death toll from Monday’s shootout could point to a pivot from the approach of the previous president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

— The New York Times