Attack on Colombian military base kills 4 civilians, including a 2-month-old

BOGOTA, Colombia -- An attack on a military base in southern Colombia killed four civilians, including a 2-month-old baby, President Abelardo de la Espriella said Monday, as drug gangs and rebel groups step up violence in response to his government’s new security strategy.

The attack occurred Sunday night in Planadas, a town in Tolima province, where unidentified assailants fired rockets made from gas cylinders at a military base, according to Planadas Mayor Juan Camilo Hueje. Some struck a nearby hospital and homes across from the base.

Hueje said a school was being used to treat the injured.

“We reject this attack that affected our hospital, put the lives of patients and medical personnel at risk, hit homes and left families in grief,” Hueje wrote Monday on Facebook. “Planadas deserves to live in peace,” he added.

In a post on X, de la Espriella said a police officer had recently been killed in southern Colombia and that rebel groups continued to stage attacks on toll booths in Cauca, a region in the country's southwest.

“We will use the full capacity of the state to finish off these criminal structures,” de la Espriella wrote. “We will continue to bomb legitimate targets, intensify special operations and move forward with the reactivation of aerial spraying," of coca fields, he added.

Colombia’s Human Rights Ombudswoman Iris Marín said Monday in a statement that two rebel groups have been fighting for control of the area around Planadas since 2022. She said the violence has intensified recently as the military staged operations against illegal gold mines near the town.

Marín said Sunday’s attack was an infringement of international humanitarian law.

A 2016 peace agreement between Colombia’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, reduced violence in several rural regions, including the villages around Planadas.

But violence has increased in recent years as smaller drug gangs and rebel groups fight over territory abandoned by the FARC.

De la Espriella suspended peace talks with Colombia’s remaining rebel groups after taking office in August, and launched a security strategy prioritizing military pressure. His government has increased airstrikes against rebel groups and established a joint task force to protect a key pipeline from rebel attacks.

Some of Colombia’s rebel groups have responded by staging attacks with explosives along highways or trying to impose lockdowns on civilians, while also targeting police stations or military bases within cities.

According to ACLED, a research group that monitors conflicts around the world, state forces and illegal armed groups carried out 34 attacks with bombs or explosives in Colombia during the four-week period that ended on Oct. 16 — a 9% increase from last year’s four-week average.

The figure includes drone attacks waged by rebel groups, and attacks with improvised devices like the gas cylinders used in Planadas, but also airstrikes launched by the nation’s military on rebel camps.