Militants kill 9 troopers in assault on Colombia’s navy

Militants in Colombia killed a minimum of 9 troopers and injured one other 9 in an assault early Wednesday on a navy put up in a troubled area close to the nation’s border with Venezuela, authorities mentioned.

The navy gave no particulars of the assault in El Carmen within the state of Norte de Santander, however mentioned a preliminary evaluation indicated it was carried out by the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the nation’s final lively guerrilla group.

It can be essentially the most severe assault by the guerillas since November after they resumed peace talks with the federal government, and would complicate efforts by Colombia’s first leftist president, Gustavo Petro, to carry “complete peace” to the nation of fifty million.

Petro condemned the assault, and mentioned in a tweet that those that carried it out had been “completely removed from peace and the folks.” He mentioned seven of these killed had been troopers doing obligatory navy service and that two had been officers.

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Militants in Colombia killed 9 troopers a minimum of 9 troopers and injured one other 9 in an assault early Wednesday on a navy put up. 

The commander of Colombia’s navy, Maj. Gen. Helder Giraldo, mentioned the navy would proceed operations within the space towards the ELN and would file a grievance over the “severe violation of human rights and worldwide humanitarian regulation.”

Some rural areas of Colombia are nonetheless underneath the grip of drug gangs and insurgent teams regardless of a historic peace deal in 2016 with the bigger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Founded in 1964 and initially impressed by the Cuban revolution, the ELN now has round 2,000 to 4,000 troops in Colombia and neighboring Venezuela. Human rights organizations have reported that the group runs drug trafficking routes and unlawful gold mines.

ELN assaults have scuttled peace talks previously. In 2019, a automotive bombing claimed by ELN that killed 22 folks at a police faculty in Bogota led the federal government of then-President Iván Duque to droop all dialogue.