The Colombian Army raised the official death toll of a FARC attack on a military unit in the southwest of Colombia to ten Friday, making it the bloodiest attack on Colombia’s Armed Forces this year.
According to the military, members of the FARC‘s Daniel Aldana mobile column — one of the best-trained units of the guerrilla organization — killed one lieutenant, one sergeant and eight soldiers. Six soldiers were injured in the attack.
Following the attack, the guerrillas stole one mortar, one machine gun and 19 rifles.
General Alejandro Navas, commander of the Armed Forces, admitted to press that “we suffered a blow” and that the attack was the result of a tactical error by the security forces.
According to weekly Semana, military analysts have criticized the Armed Forces for allowing their units to stay in one place for too long, making them easy targets for guerrilla attacks.
The attack is the deadliest so far this year and comes only weeks after the ongoing guerrilla attacks on police and Army forced President Juan Manuel Santos to entirely replace the Armed Forces’ military command.