The Colombian military has detained six suspected members of the guerrilla group FARC believed to be responsible for a July 9 ‘goat bombing’ that left three dead, newspaper El Pais announced Monday.
In a nighttime air assault in Caloto, in the southern department of Cauca, Colombian troops captured six alleged members of FARC’s 6th Front.
The six detainees are believed to have set off a goat bomb on July 9 in Toribio, also in the Cauca department. Three people were killed and 103 injured.
The operation, referred to as “Operation Lightning,” included the confiscation a supply of arms, including 50-caliber rifles and hand grenades.
Among the arrested were two minors. According to General Jairo Erazo, the alleged participation of minors in the violent attack demonstrates the FARC’s disregard for human rights.
“This is the call I make to the parents, to the shelters, where we should fight so that they no longer can commit the infamy of recruiting of minors, violating all their rights in a war they do not have to be in,” Erazo said.
“This is where the bandits from the FARC show their cowardice.”