Colombia claims that at least 13 guerrillas from the FARC’s 48th Front were killed and two captured in an armed forces attack on a camp close to the border with Ecuador early Monday morning.
The Ministry of Defense announced that the air force carried out an aerial bombing raid, helped by police intelligence work, on a FARC camp in a rural area close in the municipality of Ipiales, in the Nariño department.
The army then went in on foot and recovered the bodies of 13 guerrillas and captured two wounded fighters, one of whom was an Ecuadorean minor, according to the ministry.
“This is a decisive blow to the 48th Front, the structure that generates the most resources to the FARC through drug trafficking,” said Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera. He described the attack as a “very significant blow to one of the FARC’s most important structures in the south of the country.”
According to the ministry, the camp held around 35 rebel fighters, led by alias “Euclid.”
The government has struck a series of blows against the FARC through bombing raids in recent months, including the death of second-in-command “Mono Jojoy.”
Twenty-seven members of the 48th Front died in an army bomb raid in September.
The FARC’s 48th Front is thought to be responsible for a September attack on the town of San Miguel in the Putumayo department that killed eight policemen.
