The death toll from a pair of attacks in Colombia yesterday has risen to at least 17, as President Gustavo Petro attributed both assaults to dissident factions of the demobilized FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, according to an AP report.
In the first incident, at least 12 police officers were killed when their helicopter was attacked in a northern region of Antioquia. The aircraft was transporting personnel on a mission to eradicate coca leaf crops, the raw material for cocaine. President Petro initially reported eight officers killed, but the Governor of Antioquia, Andrés Julián, later confirmed that four additional officers succumbed to their injuries and three others were wounded.
Governor Julián stated on the platform X that a drone struck the helicopter as it flew over coca fields. Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez added that preliminary information indicates the attack caused a fire onboard the aircraft.
Meanwhile, in a separate event in the southwestern city of Cali, authorities reported that a vehicle loaded with explosives detonated near a military aviation school. This blast killed five people and injured more than 30. The Colombian air force did not immediately release further details on the explosion.
President Petro had initially blamed the Gulf Clan, the nation’s largest active drug cartel, for the helicopter attack. However, he later clarified that a suspected member of a FARC dissident group had been arrested in the area where the explosion occurred.
Both the FARC dissidents, who rejected a 2016 peace deal with the government, and the Gulf Clan operate in the Antioquia region. The cultivation of coca leaf is on the rise in Colombia, with the latest available report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime indicating a record 253,000 hectares under cultivation in 2023.