Alleged members of the leftist guerrilla organization FARC attacked the Trans-Andean oil pipeline with explosives in southern Colombia on Tuesday.
Colombian media reported that the explosion caused an oil spill and firefighters have been unable to control the resulting blazes that threaten the area. The alleged guerrilla attack occurred in the southern municipality of La Hormiga, located less than a mile from the Ecuadorean border.
The attack on the pipeline is supposedly part of a larger attack launched by guerrillas in the Putumayo department on Tuesday. Three soldiers were killed and another two were wounded in a firefight with alleged FARC members earlier in the day.
The 190-mile Trans-Andean pipeline, owned by Colombia’s largest oil company Ecopetrol, transports oil from Ecuador to Colombia’s Pacific port of Tumaco.
Pipelines in southern Colombia have been the target of many alleged guerrilla attacks in 2010 and 2011. The Trans-Andean pipeline was bombed in February 2011, wreaking ecological havoc on the local community.
