Ten soldiers were killed in a FARC ambush in the northeast of Colombia Saturday; the second time within 48 hours guerrillas are able to kill that number of soldiers.
According to media reports, the hit-and-run attack took place in Tame, a municipality in the Arauca department that has seen several rebel attacks on security forces this year.
At least two soldiers survived the ambush, but were injured and sent to nearby hospitals.
General Ernesto Maldonado, commander of the Army’s 8th Division, FARC rebels opened fire and launched gas bottles at the convoy after which the guerrillas fled.
On Friday, alleged FARC guerrillas killed ten soldiers and injured another six in the southwest of the country. Both attacks are the deadliest so far this year and come only weeks after President Juan Manuel Santos replaced the entire military command in the light of the ongoing hit-and-run attacks of guerrilla groups in the northeast and south of the country and soaring murder rates in the north where neo-paramilitary groups are fighting over important drug routes to the Caribbean.