Five prison authority officials were killed in an attack attributed to Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC in the south of the country on Tuesday.
According to preliminary reports, the five guards of prison authority INPEC were ambushed by a rebel unit as they were traveling in a car together with three inmates close to San Vicente del Caguan, a town in the north of the Caqueta department.
The three prisoners reportedly survived the attack, but there was no information indicating they were FARC members.
Radio station Caracol reported the three were about to be transferred from a local prison to appear before a judge when the convoy was ambushed at 9:00 on Tuesday morning.
The director of INPEC, General Gustavo Ricaurte, traveled to San Vicente del Caguan on Tuesday to personally oversee the investigation into the death of the five non-commissioned officers.
At least 2o INPEC employees have been assassinated so far during 2013.