Alleged FARC guerrillas have attacked an oil installation in southwestern Colombia Friday morning, local media reported.
According to local authorities, the FARC guerrillas bombed an oil pipeline in the Orito municipality, located in the southwestern Putumayo department. Colombian state-owned oil company Ecopetrol, which is responsible for the pipeline, said the oil spill had reached a local river and warned people living nearby from drinking the water.
This is the third supposed FARC attack against this pipeline in the past eight days.
A ranking representative from the Colombian Army blamed the FARC’s 48th Front for the attack.
In the first six months of 2012, FARC guerrillas launched a total of 67 attacks against oil infrastructure in Colombia, which is considered a 300% increase over 2011, when there were 22 attacks.