A female minor planted the bomb that exploded Wednesday afternoon outside the office of intelligence agency DAS in the southern Colombian city of Pasto, Nariño, according to witness testimony, local authorities announced Thursday.
Nariño Governor Antonio Navarro said that police had detained three suspects in the attack, one of which is a minor who, according to witnesses “was the one who left the package of explosives outside the DAS building.”
“Several witnesses saw her when she left the bag [filled with explosives] … the dogs detected traces of explosive on her hands and clothes,” Navarro said.
The governor said he believes the DAS attack was the work of guerrilla group the ELN.
“Everything indicates, in my critical opinion, that it was an ELN operation,” Navarro said, citing new graffiti such as “the ELN have arrived” and “the ELN are here” in the streets of Pasto as evidence.
Police said Thursday that they believe the attack to be the work of a joint operation between the ELN and fellow terrorist group the FARC.
Thirteen people, including a pregnant woman and two DAS detectives, were injured in the bomb blast.
The Pasto DAS bombing is the latest in a series of attacks that have been carried out over the last week, killing almost 30 members of the Colombian armed forces.
Following the spate of attacks, the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos has categorically ruled out peace talks with Colombian rebel groups. Santos took office August 7 amid FARC peace overtures, after eight years of rebel losses under former President Alvaro Uribe’s hardline anti-insurgent policies.