Colombia’s army says that FARC commander Jhon Jairo Bedoya Arias, alias “Rumba,” is responsible for Tuesday’s bomb attack in Huila, central Colombia, which injured 11 people, reports El Espectador.
The bomb, which was detonated in a minivan in the Huila village of Vegalarga on Tuesday, killed the driver, and injured ten police officers and one local woman.
Twenty houses around the targeted police station were completely destroyed, but many residents had already left following rumors of an imminent attack.
The army said that Bedoya Arias assumed command of the FARC’s 17th Front in May this year, taking over from former leader Rigoberto Zuluaga Moncada, alias “Rigo,” who was killed in combat with the army.
Bedoya Arias was given the job of securing a strategic corridor which connects the departments of Huila with Tolima and Meta.
The FARC commander has reportedly stepped up campaigns of kidnapping and terrorist attacks against security forces and civilians.
Soldiers of the army’s 9th Brigade are searching for those responsible for the attack and attempting to gain control of the area.
President Juan Manuel Santos condemned the attack and called it an act of cowardliness and despair.
“When a group has to resort to acts of terrorism like putting a bomb in a bus full of farm workers and letting it explode when passing a police station, this means that our ground, sea and air forces are doing a good job, because they have made the enemy despair,” Santos said.
