Seven Colombian soldiers were killed early Monday in an ambush allegedly committed by left-wing guerrilla organization FARC in the southwestern Cauca department.
Soldiers of the Army’s 14th Brigade were travelling in a military vehicle, carrying out administrative duties, when they were attacked with explosives near the village of Caloto.
The confrontation was especially cruel, Colombia’s Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said, because the soldiers attacked were in a “defenseless situation.”
The Cauca department, located west of the mountain range that is considered the heartland of the FARC, has been one that’s been hardest hit by FARC attacks on security forces this year.