At Least Four Police Agents Dead in FARC Attack in Colombia

At least four police agents dead in FARC attack in Colombia

BOGOTA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) — At least four police agents were killed and an undefined number of others injured in an attack by armed rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Cauca Department in southwest of the country, authorities said Wednesday.

The FARC offensive started at around 8:00 a.m. local time (1300 GMT) in Piamonte Municipality, and is ongoing.

According to sources, Army Brigade 27 Commander Nicolas Yara is in charge of the government forces’ defensive operations, and has aerial support.

Two weeks ago, some 1,500 FARC members carried out an offensive in the southwest region of Putumayo. Calm has now returned to that area.

FARC is the biggest rebel organization in Colombia, with approximately 20,000 combatants.

For four decades, Colombia has been locked in a vicious civil war — the longest in Latin America — in which government forces, leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries battle one another. Their conflicts kill more than 3,000 people every year.