An alleged attack by the guerrilla group FARC has killed one Colombian soldier and wounded a lieutenant, according to local news reports.
The homemade explosive device was detonated as soldiers were carrying out operations in the rural area of Arauquita in Colombia’s northern Arauca department.
The latest attack comes in the wake of a surge of violence in the oil-rich Arauca department, according to data compiled by Colombia Reports, which records nine attacks in the first week of August alone.
The Colombian Defense Minister has claimed that many of the attacks are planned from across the “porous border” with Venezuela where the leader of the FARC’s 10th Front, alias “Efren Arboleda,” is believed to be hiding.