A Highway Patrol commander has been assassinated in an attack in northern Colombia, local media reported Tuesday.
According to several media, the colonel was shot and killed by a sniper while traveling through the Valdivia municipality in the north of the Antioquia department.
El Colombiano attributed the attack to the 36th Front of the FARC, which is considered to be active in large parts of northern Antioquia.
Newspaper El Tiempo initially wrote that neo-paramilitary group “Los Urabeños,” not the FARC, was behind the attack, but later withdrew that claim from its website.
The assassinated official was the replacement of a colonel who was killed by FARC guerrillas in June 2011 in the nearby municipality of Yarumal.
The Valdivia municipality is considered a hotbed of FARC and neo-paramilitary activity.