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Car bomb at Colombian police station kills one, injures 11 / Photo: © AFP
Car bomb at Colombian police station kills one, injures 11
Colombian authorities said Tuesday that a deadly car bombing outside a police station in a northeastern province was carried out by the country's largest active armed group, weeks after the government launched a new offensive against guerrillas.
The attack on Monday in the department of Norte de Santander killed one civilian and injured eleven others, including two police officers, local officials said.
It came shortly after President Abelardo de la Espriella's hard-right administration conducted an airstrike against guerrillas in the southern Amazonian department of Guaviare, killing 20 people.
At around midnight, a stolen vehicle loaded with around 80 kilograms of explosives blew up next to the police station in the town of Los Patios, which borders Venezuela.
Local police commander Colonel Jimmy Belalcazar identified the victim as a 23-year-old Venezuelan man.
One of the wounded officers needed to have part of his leg amputated, Belalcazar told Caracol Radio, attributing the bomb to the National Liberation Army (ELN).
Next to the damaged station, dozens of onlookers stared at the flames roaring from the vehicle amid shards of glass and rubble, AFP journalists observed.
Colombia is the world's largest cocaine producer and is grappling with its worst violence in a decade.
De la Espriella tapped into security fears to win presidential elections in June, although he only won the ballot by less than a percentage point.
He has pledged to get tough on crime by drawing on military support from the United States and Israel to conduct bombing campaigns against guerrillas on Colombian soil.
Monday's earlier attack in Guaviare was the deadliest military campaign against armed groups in years and followed two more lethal airstrikes earlier in August.
A source at the forensics authority told AFP on Monday that four minors were among the dead in an airstrike last week.
Rights groups warn that children and teens are increasingly being recruited by these groups through slick social media campaigns.
De la Espriella's leftist predecessor Gustavo Petro tried and failed to negotiate peace with guerrillas including the ELN as well as dissident factions of the rebel army FARC which disbanded in 2016.
Analysts say armed groups used government talks as cover to grow in strength.
Under De la Espriella, Colombia has joined US President Donald Trump's anti-cartel coalition known as Shield of the Americas.
The Washington-led alliance includes Latin American countries such as Argentina, Ecuador, and El Salvador.
M.Powell--SFF
