At least seven police officers have been killed in an explosives attack in western Colombia, President Gustavo Petro has said, the deadliest attack on security forces since he took office promising to end the country’s nearly 60-year conflict.
Police sources said the officers were killed on Friday when the vehicle in which they were travelling was hit by explosives.
“I forcefully reject the attack with explosives in San Luis, Huila where eight police died. Solidarity with their families,” Petro said on Twitter on Friday, quoting a death toll of eight that was later revised.
“These acts are a clear sabotage to total peace. I have asked authorities to go to the area to take on the investigation.”
Petro, a former member of the M-19 rebel movement, has pledged to seek “total peace” by restarting talks with National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, applying a 2016 peace accord to former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) fighters who reject it, and negotiating the surrender of crime gangs in exchange for reduced sentences.
Credit: aljazeera.com
