FARC Kill 3 Police, Cut Power to 500,000 in Colombia
Colombia's FARC rebels killed three police officers Thursday and left nearly half a million people without electricity in two separate attacks, authorities said, in the latest blow to peace talks.
Police said the leftist guerrillas attacked officers on patrol with explosives and gunfire in the southwestern department of Cauca, killing three of them.
Another attack, on an electrical tower Wednesday night, caused a power cut across the southern department of Caqueta, home to 470,000 people, authorities there said.
President Juan Manuel Santos called the attacks "incomprehensible" and "terrorist acts" at a press conference in Brussels, where he is seeking funding for post-conflict Colombia at a summit of European Union and Latin American leaders.
The twin attacks are the latest in an intensifying offensive since the unraveling of a unilateral ceasefire the FARC declared last December.
The ceasefire, hailed as one of the most positive developments since the government opened peace talks with the FARC in November 2012, fell apart after the rebels killed 11 soldiers in an ambush in April and Santos ordered a resumption of air strikes on their positions.
This week FARC fighters have bombed two other electrical installations, a water plant and an oil pipeline in the southwest of the country, authorities say.
They are also accused of attacking 19 oil tankers in the same region and forcing their drivers to dump 200,000 gallons of crude (757,000 liters).
The government said the attack caused serious environmental damage that would take 15 years to clean up.
Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon has announced the deployment of special forces to the region to deal with the increase in attacks.
The Colombian conflict has killed more than 200,000 people and uprooted more than six million since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was launched in 1964.
The peace talks in Havana have produced partial deals on several issues, including ending the drug trafficking that has fueled the conflict. But they have yet to reach a final accord.
Source: Agence France Presse
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