Two people including a soldier were killed Wednesday in Colombia when a rebel’s motorized scooter exploded near the entrance to a military base in the city of Granada, authorities said. There was an attack on the military facilities of Battalion 21” in the south-central region of Meta, local government official Hernan Gomez, told reporters.
“Unfortunately, one soldier and one civilian lost their lives,” he added, noting that five additional soldiers were injured. There was no confirmation by authorities that the perpetrator had been killed during the attack. According to General Antonio Beltran, a motorized scooter tried to enter the military base before exploding, and the soldier who died had blocked the vehicle from advancing farther into the compound.
Beltran said the driver was a member of a dissident group that did not sign on to the 2016 peace agreement between the national government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a deal that led to the disarmament of about 7,000 rebels. About 2,500 fighters, without unified leadership, have rejected the peace agreement. Granada authorities have declared a curfew until Thursday morning. “We are not going to allow the Meta to be a war zone again,” said Gomez.
