An attack on Colombia’s army by main rebel group FARC has left five army members dead and another wounded.
A statement from the military said that the attack, which took place Friday in a rural district of Tolima, southwest Colombia, involved high-power mines laid by members of the FARC’s 28th Front, part of the 26th Mobile Brigade.
Four soldiers and one army official were killed and another wounded in what the military described as “an indiscriminate attack with destructive high-power mines, which don’t allow our soldiers time to react and defend themselves.”
The army is still looking for a solider who was lost during the attack and subsequently pursued by FARC guerrillas.
This latest FARC attack against Colombia’s armed forces comes a week after 14 soldiers were killed in Arauca department, which borders Venezuela, after a joint operation between the FARC and the country’s other rebel group, ELN.
In July, the military reported that 17 soldiers guarding the Caño Limon oil pipe had been killed in an ambush in that same department.
MORE: At least 17 soldiers killed in FARC attack, 14 reported missing
Despite ongoing peace talks between the government and the FARC, which began in November in Havana, Cuba, President Juan Manuel Santos has refused to call a ceasefire, saying that the FARC would use the opportunity to regroup and rearm.
So far, the peace talks have yielded an agreement regarding land reform, but no agreements have yet been made on the issue of the FARC’s political participation, drug trafficking, the practicalities of the end of the armed conflict, and the rights of the victims.
MORE: No ceasefire with FARC until peace accord reached: Santos
Sources
- Cinco militares murieron en ataque con explosivos de las Farc (El Colombiano)
- Ataque que dejó 5 militares muertos se hizo con minas de alto poder (El Tiempo)
