At least 34 Colombian soldiers kidnapped after clashes with FARC dissidents

Defence curate says soldiers taken portion evacuating country aft a subject cognition that killed 11 rebels.

At slightest 34 authorities soldiers person been kidnapped by equipped civilians successful a jungle successful southeastern Colombia aft clashes that killed 11 fighters, including a commandant of a dissident faction of the erstwhile FARC rebel group, Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez says.

The warring occurred connected Sunday successful a agrarian portion of the El Retorno municipality successful the state of Guaviare and progressive members of the Central General Staff (EMC), a radical of erstwhile fighters with the left-wing FARC, oregon Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who rejected a 2016 bid deal with the government.

Sanchez said connected Tuesday that the soldiers were taken arsenic they were evacuating the country aft a subject cognition that killed an EMC commandant and 10 different rebels.

“This is an illegal, transgression enactment by radical successful civilian clothing,” Sanchez told reporters. “This is simply a kidnapping.”

The jungle portion is considered a strategical corridor for cause trafficking and is known for its extended coca crops, the main constituent utilized to nutrient cocaine.

It followed a akin abduction successful June erstwhile the service said 57 soldiers were seized by civilians successful a southwestern mountainous area, a cardinal portion for cocaine accumulation and 1 of the astir tense successful the country’s ongoing security crisis.

The Colombian service has maintained that the civilians successful the portion person orders from the EMC, the main FARC dissident group.

Armed groups – which money themselves done cause trafficking, amerciable mining and different crimes – stay contiguous successful Colombia aft a six-decade struggle that has killed much than 450,000 radical contempt the bid woody with the FARC 9 years agone erstwhile it was Colombia’s largest rebel group.

Last week, astatine slightest 18 radical were killed and dozens injured successful 2 attacks attributed to dissident FARC factions.

In Cali, the country’s 3rd astir populous city, a conveyance packed with explosives detonated connected Thursday adjacent a subject aviation school, sidesplitting six radical and injuring 71, according to the mayor’s office.

Hours earlier, a National Police Black Hawk chopper participating successful a coca harvest eradication cognition was downed by a drone successful the municipality of Amalfi successful the section of Antioquia, sidesplitting 12 constabulary officers.

President Gustavo Petro blamed the attacks connected dissident factions of FARC.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies