A vehicle loaded with explosives went off on Thursday near a military aviation school in Cali, the third-largest city in the country, causing six fatalities and 71 injuries, according to the mayor’s office.
In the municipality of Amalfi, in the Antioquia department, a drone shot down a National Police Black Hawk helicopter hours earlier, killing 12 police officers.
Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, attributed the attacks to rebellious FARC rebel groups, who had rejected a peace deal signed in 2016 to put an end to a protracted internal conflict that had resulted in more than 450, 000 deaths.
Petro claimed on X that the police helicopter was attacked while the aircraft was transporting personnel to an area in Antioquia, northern Colombia, to eradicate coca leaf crops, the main source of cocaine.
Andres Julian, governor of Antioquia, claimed a drone was attempting to attack the helicopter as it passed over coffee-growing areas.
According to Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez, preliminary information indicates the police helicopter was reportedly ablaze.
Petro initially attributed the helicopter attack to the Gulf Clan, the nation’s largest active drug cartel. He claimed that the aircraft was attacked in retaliation for a allegedly group-owned cocaine seizure.
In a later post on social media, Petro claimed that the suspect in the car bombing attack near the Colombian Aerospace Force was a member of the EMC (Estado Mayor Central), which was a group of dissidents affiliated with the former FARC, and that they were “subordinate” to drug traffickers.
Members of the Gulf Clan and FARC dissidents who have rejected a peace deal with the government operate in Antioquia.
Petro later stated that he would demand that the armed dissidents and the Gulf Clan be “considered terrorists and pursued anywhere on the planet.”
Colombia is growing its use of coca leaves.
Source: Aljazeera
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