Nine people, including seven minors, were injured Monday by a grenade attack in southwestern Colombia.
Authorities said the grenade was launched against an army checkpoint in the Pacific port city of Buenaventura by Colombia’s largest rebel group the FARC.
One soldier and eight civilians, including seven minors, were injured by blast debris. Two of the minors received grave injuries and had to be hospitalized in a local clinic.
“The National Navy rejects and condemns the terrorist attack perpetrated by the FARC against the civilian population on Sunday night, violating the human rights and the fulfilling of the norms of International Humanitarian Law,” said the navy colonel Gonzalo Aladino to newspaper El Pais.
Buenaventura, home of Colombia’s largest port in the Pacific region, has long been plagued by violence as neo-paramilitary groups, criminal gangs and left-wing guerrillas struggle for control over strategic cocaine shipping routes.
