21 Dead in car bomb attack in Colombia

In a bomb attack on a police Academy in the Colombian capital, Bogotá, at least 21 people have been killed. Dozens of people were injured also, as to the grounds of the police Academy General Santander in the South of the metropolis detonated a car bomb. The Colombian police said on Friday. Previously, it was assumed that the nine deaths.

According to the Prosecutor General of the country of the perpetrators operated on Thursday his car through the main entrance of the Academy. As a Beagle was in the control, gave the driver the Gas and drove at high speed on the terrain. There the car exploded. Several buildings were damaged, the vehicle was on fire.

Unclear authorship

The investigators identified the culprit, the came killed in the attack, as a member of the leftist guerrilla organization ELN. The man who served under the fighting name "Mocho Kico" for 17 years as an explosives expert in the ranks of the rebels in the East of the country, reported the TV channel Caracol, citing the General Prosecutor's office. Whether the attack was arranged by the ELN, was unclear. The rebel leadership says of first.

Initial investigations indicate that the site was a car with 80 kilograms of the powerful explosive Pentolite loaded, as attorney-General Néstor Humberto Martínez said. This explosive is used both for military and for civilian purposes.

Colombia suffered from decades of armed conflict between the armed forces, leftist guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitaries. Rebel groups and the Medellín cartel drug boss Pablo Escobar committed, especially in the 1980s, a succession of serious bomb attacks in the capital, Bogotá.

Powerful words

the Last had improved the security situation in the South American country. The largest rebel organization Farc has in the meantime concluded a peace Treaty with the government, and the weapons put down. However, the smaller guerrilla group fighting ELN is still against the state. Also, criminal syndicates involved in drug smuggling, and the return of bloody clashes with the police and the armed forces.

"This attack will not go unpunished. We Colombians have subjected us to never terrorism," said President Iván Duque at the scene. "I call on all Colombians, against the Violent to do: We are not soft to take a step back from those who would attack the company."

Among those killed was a police student from the neighboring country of Ecuador. "Those responsible for this crime should pay for it, that you have overthrown a simple and innocent families in mourning," wrote the Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno on Twitter. "We stand with our brother States in the fight against terrorism and any Form of violence."

the Farc expressed Regret

representatives of the former Farc-rebel, arise, in the meantime, as a political party for your goals, condemned the bomb attack. "The attack on the police Academy General Santander is very unfortunate. Solidarity with the families of the victims," wrote Farc-Senator for Victoria Sandino on Twitter. "We have to ask ourselves who benefits from such actions and what goals they pursue."

(red/sda)

Created: 18.01.2019, 06:23 PM