Colombian security forces inflicted a major blow against suspected FARC guerrillas, killing 24 and capturing ten more during military operations in the northeastern Arauca department, near the border with Venezuela Tuesday.
President Juan Manuel Santos announced initial figures for the incident through his Twitter account, tweeting Wedneday morning, “Great blow to the FARC in Arauca where they killed our soldiers. 24 are dead and ten captured. Congratulations to our forces.”
Among the 24 originally reported dead were alias “Misael,” second in command of the FARC’s tenth front, and alias “El Indio Gozalo,” who had served with the group for 18 years and was the FARC’s head of finances.
The operation was joint coordinated by the Police, Army and Air Force and took place over Tuesday and Wednesday morning. In addition to the neutralized guerrillas, a machine gun, four rifles, three pistols and ten detonable bombs were seized.
The move against the guerrillas was reportedly in response to an ambush Saturday in which 11 soldiers were killed.