Fortnight of FARC Attacks Hit Security Forces in Colombia
News from Colombia |
on: Saturday, 6 November 2010
Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Javier Garcia, a regional Army commander, was one of those killed in the recent attacks
Leftwing FARC guerrillas in Colombia have killed at least a dozen members of the security forces, including a senior Army commander, in a series of strikes around the country in the past two weeks. The attacks began on October 21st with a rebel assault on the police station in the town of El Mango, Cauca province, during which a police officer was killed and another four wounded.
Three days later an urban guerrilla unit killed soldiers Jose Octavio Reyes (28) and Luis Javier Villegas (31) before stripping them of their weaponry near the town of Algeciras, Huila province. This was followed on October 27th with an ambush by members of the FARC’s 21st front on a platoon of soldiers in a rural area of Rovira municipality in Tolima province. At least one soldier, Derney de Jesus Berna, was killed and several others wounded
The following day rebels believed to be members of the 10th front killed two police officers, including a local commander, during an attack on a police patrol on the Tame to Saravena road in the province of Arauca. At least three other officers were injured as were two civilians.
In an incident condemned by the Colombian Army, November 1st saw an audacious guerrilla ambush on a patrol carrying the regional military commander in the province of Putumayo. Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Javier Garcia, commander of the 27th Battalion of the Colombian Army, along with two other soldiers who were serving as part of the officers’ escort, were all killed in the 9.40am attack outside the city of Puerto Asis.
Further violence flared on November 3rd when three police officers were killed and several others wounded during a FARC assault on a police patrol near the town of El Doncello in Caqueta province.
Meanwhile, in a seperate development, the ELN, a smaller illegal armed group that primarily operates in just three regions of the country, is thought to have been behind the kidnapping of the mother of a provincial deputy which occurred yesterday in the province of Arauca. Ana Judith Agudelo was abducted just a day after the same ELN faction is believed to have taken another civilian, Alexander Avellenada, hostage near the town of Saravena. Mr Avellenada is the brother of the mayor of Saravena, which is also in Arauca, and both kidnappings are most likely aimed at extracting concessions from the political figures involved.
In other violence, thought to be unrelated to the FARC insurgency, two people were killed and at least 15 injured in a grenade explosion in the Colombian city of Villavicencio on October 31st. The dead are thought to include a police officer and the man who detonated the grenade, though the reasons behind the attack are still unclear.
