At least four people were killed when a lorry laden with explosives detonated in Tolima province, western Colombia, on Sunday, a local official has said.
A two-month-old baby girl was among the dead, Tolima governor Adriana Magali Matiz wrote in a post on X.
The lorry exploded near a military base in the town of Planadas, damaging a nearby hospital and several other buildings.
It is not yet clear who was behind the bombing, but armed criminal groups have recently stepped up attacks against the security forces in what appears to be retaliation for an offensive ordered against them by the new right-wing President, Abelardo de la Espriella.
Governor Matiz called the attack in Planadas “a vile and criminal act that we reject with absolute forcefulness”.
“Attacking the civilian population and putting at risk the lives of our soldiers and the Tolima families is crossing a line that we will not tolerate,” she added on X.
President de la Espriella, who campaigned on a tough-on-crime platform, wrote on social media that “we will not retreat, not even a millimetre”.
Since he was sworn into office in August, the right-wing former defence lawyer has put an end to peace talks with some of Colombia’s illegal armed groups, negotiations which had been started under his left-wing predecessor Gustavo Petro.
“In my government, criminals will have no political status, no leniency, and no impunity,” de la Espriella wrote in a post on social media at the time.
At the start of his presidency, Petro had advocated for a “total peace strategy”, arguing that only talks could lead to an end to the violence perpetrated by Colombia’s many armed groups.
But after repeated breaches of the terms of the negotiations, Petro put some of the peace talks on hold.
De la Espriella has gone further, expanding his crackdown on all of the country’s illegal groups, including bombing their camps.
These groups have in turn stepped up their attacks on the security forces, in some instances using drones – rather than cars or motorcycles – to transport the explosives.
In one of them, carried out on 23 October, a marine infantryman was killed and four others were injured aboard a Navy boat in Cauca province.
Writing on X after Sunday’s bombing in Tolima, the president directly addressed what he said were “the narco-terrorists who continue to assassinate innocents”.
“We’re going to carry on with the bombings against legitimate military targets and we will step up our special operations,” he stated, adding that those responsible would be “hunted down”.
“This government will confront you, dismantle your organisations and restore security for Colombians.”
By BBC News
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