Attacks in Colombia attributed to FARC leave 18 dead

At least 18 people have been killed and dozens injured after two attacks in Colombia attributed to different dissident factions of the former FARC guerrilla group.

In Cali, the country's third-most populated city, a cargo vehicle with explosives detonated on Thursday near a Colombian Aerospace Force base, in an incident that left six people dead and 71 injuries, according to the mayor's office.

Hours earlier, a National Police Black Hawk UH-60 helicopter participating in a coca leaf crop eradication operation was shot down in the municipality of Amalfi, in the department of Antioquia, leaving 12 officers dead.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro blamed the attacks on dissident factions of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group that rejected a 2016 peace agreement to end a prolonged internal conflict that has left more than 450,000 dead.

Governor Andr?s Juli?n Rend?n also blamed the attacks on splinter groups of FARC and the Gulf Cartel criminal syndicate.

Security forces had previously seized 1.5 tonnes of cocaine belonging to the Gulf Cartel.

According to a report in the El Tiempo newspaper, two helicopters had dropped off police officers in the area to destroy coca fields.

They returned after reports of an attack on the police officers, at which point one of the helicopters was struck by a drone and crashed.

Rend?n published a video on X in which a black column of smoke can be seen above the crash site.

Colombia is the largest cocaine producing country in the world.

Although the security situation has improved following the peace agreement between the government and FARC signed in 2016, parts of the country are still controlled by illegal groups

with DPA