An attack on a Colombian National Police helicopter and a suspected car bombing near a military air base left at least 14 people dead Thursday in what Colombian authorities are describing as terrorist acts.
It’s unclear whether the events are related.
The police helicopter was attacked by a drone in the department of Antioquia as it was supporting the manual eradication of illicit crops in the area, Antioquia Gov. Andrés Julián Rendón said, adding two uniformed officers were injured.
The governor posted a video that appears to show the helicopter crashing into a hill.
Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez said the attack was carried out by the 36th Front of the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), dissidents of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a disbanded leftist guerrilla group.
At least eight people were killed and eight more were injured, according to President Gustavo Petro.
Earlier, he suggested the powerful criminal syndicate Gulf Clan might be involved, noting the attack came after the seizure of 1.5 tons of cocaine in the Urabá region of Antioquia. But he later blamed the 36th Front of EMC.
National Police Director Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán described the incident as a “terrorist act” and said police units were treating the wounded.
News of the helicopter attack came the same day as an explosion near the Marco Fidel Suárez military air base in Cali.
The blast left at least six people dead and 50 injured, the local health secretariat said.
The Colombian Aerospace Force described it as a “terrorist attack,” saying it was perpetrated with a car bomb.
Police are now securing the city’s entrances and exits, the mayor’s office said.
Mayor Alejandro Eder said emergency services were treating the injured. He announced a reward of 400 million pesos (just under $100,000) for anyone providing information about the attack.
So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the explosion.
In June, a series of attacks in Cali and other towns in Cauca left at least seven dead and 28 injured. At the time, the prosecutor’s office said the attacks were in response to the 2022 death of a local leader of the FARC dissidents.