Colombia roadside bombing targets police, hurts 8
A roadside bombing targeting a police convoy in the Colombian capital, Bogota, has injured eight people, local officials say.
Explosives planted on the shoulder of a roadway detonated on Thursday at a time a convoy of law enforcement vehicles was passing by, wounding five police officers and three civilians, AP reported citing police officials.
"There is no doubt that we were dealing here with a terrorist attack against the police," Metropolitan Police commander, Humberto Guatibonza, told a Bogota news briefing following the bombing.
Guatibonza linked the explosion to a series of similar bombing attacks that have rocked the nation’s capital in recent months, with the National Liberation Army (ELN) militant group widely believed to be the chief suspect.
He further stated that the bombing "has a strong similarity to ones committed by ELN in the past," in terms of the structure of the explosive device as well as the location and the manner in which it was planted.
The ELN, Colombia's second-largest anti-state militant group, entered into preliminary negotiations with government authorities in January about joining talks to resolve and end a domestic conflict that has so far left an estimated 220,000 people dead and displaced 5.3 million others.
The police commander also expressed concern that the situation with waging such terror attacks is getting worse, adding, "We think it's something that's escalating."
Meanwhile, Guatibonza stated that the wounded officers "fortunately are out of danger," and expected to survive the bombing attack.
The talks between the government and the country’s militant groups, which originally began in 2012, have produced partial accords between Columbia’s largest militant group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and Bogota.
However, they have yet to yield a definitive agreement to resolve their nearly 50-year-old conflict.
MFB/KA/SS
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