Colombia’s air force on Thursday bombed a camp of the National Liberation Army (ELN), a guerrilla group, killing one of its most wanted leaders, Defence Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo announced.
Regional official Carlos Feliz put the number of guerrillas killed at 22, but Holmes Trujillo only mentioned the deaths of the leader known as Mocho Tierra and three other “terrorists”.
The attack occurred in a rural area in Montecristo in the country’s north.
It targeted Mocho Tierra, who headed three ELN fronts, Holmes Trujillo said.
Mocho Tierra is believed to have planned attacks against police and soldiers, according to broadcaster Caracol.
He also allegedly plotted routes for the transport of cocaine, which the ELN traffics.
The military operation was a joint one between the army and police, Holmes Trujillo said.
Security forces seized weapons and communication equipment, he added.
The ELN is estimated to have more than 2,000 fighters.
The government signed a peace deal with the much bigger guerrilla group FARC in 2016.
But President Ivan Duque, a conservative, has refused to continue earlier negotiations with the ELN unless it unilaterally stops all violent activity.
The ELN declared a unilateral ceasefire for April because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but did not extend it. It has fought with the army and with FARC dissidents in the south-western Cauca region.
The group has usually staged small-scale attacks, many of them against Colombia’s oil pipelines, but it claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Bogota police academy that left 22 students dead in January 2019.
That attack dashed hopes that negotiations could be resumed in the near future.
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