Americas

Americas

4 killed, 3 injured in Colombian RARC rebels ambush

05 June 2012 03:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA.Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) rebels ambushed a police convoy accompanying a pregnant woman to the hospital Monday, killing four people and injuring three others in the southern department of Caqueta, local authorities and international news media said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The pregnant woman had reportedly requested police help her get to the hospital and they were en route when the patrol car came under fire.

Caqueta Police Chief Colonel Carlos Vargas told local Caracol Radio station the police were "attacked with gunfire and several grenades"in the town of La Montanita early Monday.

Vargas said two police officers died in the attack, as well as a 63-year-old woman who had been accompanying the pregnant woman who was injured and taken to a local hospital.

The pregnant woman lost her baby due to a miscarriage caused by her injuries.

Officials suspect the FARC’s 15th Front carried out the attack in Caqueta, a known rebel stronghold.

The FARC’s 15th Front was involved in the release last week of French journalist Romeo Langlois, who had been held for a little more than a month.

Officials said Monday’s attack also injured two minors aged eight and nine, when bullets shot through the walls of homes surrounding the site of the ambush.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Florencia, capital of Caqueta, where doctors said they were in a critical condition.

The FARC, Colombia’s oldest and largest leftist insurgent group, recently renounced ransom kidnappings, which they used to fund their movement, but have stepped up attacks on the Colombian government.