A motorcycle bomb attack attributed to FARC rebels against a police station left 14 civilians and three policemen wounded in the southwest of Colombia Monday.
The attack, which was registered in the urban area of the Timbio municipality, also caused significant material damage to nearby buildings.
According to Radio Santa Fe, FARC rebels were behind the attack, while newspaper El Pais wrote that authorities were not yet certain about the origin of the attackers.
“We do not have concrete data as [to which group committed] the terrorist attack, we are sure they only search to create chaos and social disorder,” said Mauricio Cartagena, a police commander in Cauca.
Later on Monday night, Cartagena said the type of explosives (R1) used in the attack indicated the perpetrators were FARC rebels.
On Monday afternoon, police confirmed there were 17 people injured, four of those, including the three policemen, with grave injuries.
Also in the Cauca department, authorities succeeded in halting an attempted FARC attack against a water installation on Monday. Police reported that 6 undetonated explosive charges were found on the water aqueduct in the Caloto municipality.
Cauca is one of the most important strongholds of Colombia’s largest rebel group. In an interview with local Cali newspaper El Pais, general Jorge Humberto Jerez Cuellar said the army had dealt important blows to the rebels in this department.
“We have succeeded in weakening the FARC in Cauca. The guerrilla Column Gabriel Galvis is in this moment no longer in the high parts of Pradera, Florida and Miranda, which was their base for many years. We have [chased them away] from that site where the people paid extortions […] where they took kidnapping [victims]. We have also taken away from them the corridors of movement they used for drug trafficking.”
The general also said the FARC Fronts in the outskirts of Valle del Cauca’s capital Cali were not strong enough to enter the city.
“With the military operations the guerrilla was defeated in [the central Cundinamarca department] and then the FARC thought of Cali as a new capital to control. For this reason there are various Fronts around the city. But, they will not be able because the Army is present. I think we are doing [well], the strategy is very well elaborated; the offensive has never been detained. They will never arrive in Cali,” the general said.
Also on Monday, combat between the FARC and the army left two rebels killed in the northern Catatumbo region, while two soldiers were killed in the northwestern Antioquia department after having stepped into a FARC minefield.
MORE: Landmine leaves 2 soldiers dead, 2 children injured
Sources
- Unas 17 personas resultaron heridas, tras explosion de motobomba en Timbio (El Pais)
- Farc detonaron motocicleta-bomba en Timbio e intentaron volar acueducto en Caloto (Radio Santa Fe)
- Explosión dejó 17 heridos en Timbío, Cauca (El Colombiano)
- Seis heridos por moto cargada con explosivos en Timbio (Cauca) (El Tiempo)
- “Hemos logrado debilitar a las Farc en Cauca”: comandante Fuerza de Tarea Apolo (El Pais)
- Frustran atentado de las Farc a acueducto de El Palo, norte del Cauca (El Pais)
- Dos guerrilleros muertos y seis capturados en combates con Ejército (El Espectador)
