By IANS,
Bogota : At least five soldiers have been killed and 10 wounded in a mine explosion during an operation to nab a rebel guerrilla leader in northeast Colombia, a military statement has said.
The explosion occurred Saturday when the government troops, who were searching for a top leader of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), stepped in a minefield prepared by the rebels in municipality of Tibu on the Venezuelan border, EFE news agency reported Sunday.
“Five members of the military – a lieutenant, a sergeant and three enlisted men – were killed and 11 injured in the blast,” the military statement said adding that the troops were continuing the operation in the area to nab Ivan Marquez, who is one of the top-rank leaders of the rebel group.
“Besides setting up the minefield, the rebels blew up a bridge that links the town of Tibu with the rest of the region. The explosions caused panic among the inhabitants and cut them off from many towns of the area,” the military said.
Last Tuesday in the same region, the FARC attacked the Caño Limon-Coveñas oil pipeline, sparking an environmental disaster in the Tibu River that has left the inhabitants without potable water.
The attack spilled 4,000 barrels of crude into the Tibu River, which provides water for the town aqueduct. Employees of the Colombian oil company Ecopetrol and the regional public service company Emtibu are working to stem the emergency.
The commander of the army, General Mario Montoya, went to the area to direct operations in which an undetermined number of rebels have died in battles with Colombian troops.
The fighting is part of an operation launched in February in the Catatumbo region to capture Marquez, the rebel chief who in November 2007 had met Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as part of the latter’s attempts to achieve a humanitarian accord between the Colombian government and the FARC.
Actions against the rebels since February have left 50 FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas dead. some 700 hectares of coca crops eradicated and 30 laboratories for processing cocaine destroyed in the period, the official statement said.