A powerful Colombian guerrilla group on Monday killed two officers and wounded at least seven others in separate gun and bomb attacks in the restive southwest, police sources said.
Two police sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, pinned the attacks on Central General Staff (EMC) rebels who refused to join in when the FARC Marxist guerrilla group signed a 2016 peace deal with the government.
In one attack, militants opened fire and set off cylinder bombs at a bank and police station in the town of Morales, in the Cauca department. Two officers were killed and three injured, said one of the sources.
An army source told AFP that 100 soldiers had been sent to the town to deal with continuing clashes.
In the neighboring department of Valle del Cauca to the north, a motorcycle loaded with explosives was set off, injuring four people, including three children, said the second source.
President Gustavo Petro described the situation in Cauca as “unacceptable” and asked Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez to head there.
“We will not tolerate the continued terrorization of the population with terrorist attacks,” Petro wrote on X.
The two departments are a hotbed of activity by EMC fighters under the control of guerrilla leader Ivan Mordisco, who broke away from a peace process in April after a split within the group, which united some 3,500 combatants.
The government has since launched an offensive against Mordisco’s forces.
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