EL PASO, Texas -- At least three U.S. residents have been killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico in as many weeks as the death toll in a nearly yearlong drug cartel war surpasses 1,400.

The latest victim is a 32-year-old American woman. Mexican police say she was shot several times Tuesday as she stood in front of a Juarez home. She was returned to El Paso, where she died en route to Thomason Hospital.

Two other U.S. residents, Roberto Martinez and Ruth Sagredo Velasco, were both killed in a barrage of at least 20 shots from AK-47 assault rifles. They were shot November 22nd as they drove in a funeral procession for Sagredo's sister.

Juarez is a sprawling city of about 2 million that's been at the center of a bloody drug cartel war that's left more than 1,400 people dead this year. Warring cartels have been fighting for control of the city's lucrative drug and human smuggling trade. Thousands of Mexican soldiers and additional police have been stationed in the city, but the fighting has only intensified.

George W. Grayson is an expert on Mexico expert at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He says violence in Juarez and other Mexican border cities has become so widespread in the past year that innocent bystanders are routine victims.

Grayson says he doubts American citizens or those with ties to the U.S. are specific targets. Instead, he says they're just "in the wrong place at the wrong time."