Colombian Rebels Target Infrastructure, Leaving Municipalities Isolated

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 09, 2003

Colombian Rebels Target Infrastructure, Leaving Municipalities Isolated

Five places in Colombia's northwestern state of Antioquia have been cut off and left without electricity for two weeks due to a guerrilla offensive, officials said Wednesday.

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Five places in Colombia's northwestern state of Antioquia have been cut off and left without electricity for two weeks due to a guerrilla offensive, officials said Wednesday.

These places -- San Luis, Cocorna, Granada, El Penol and San Carlos -- lie in the eastern part of the state.

San Luis mayor Hernando Martinez said the rebels sought to isolate the region with attacks mainly on electricity and communication infrastructure. Reports said 11 civilians were killed in the offensive.

The Colombian government has ordered the army and police to crush the rebel offensive jointly taken by the Revolutionary ArmedForces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

"We've asked the army and the police to protect the civil population and to end this guerrilla action, which is not justifiable whatsoever," Defense Minister Martha Ramirez said.

In another development, a car loaded with several kilograms of dynamite explosives went off on Wednesday noon near the military base of Colombian Army's anti-guerrilla Battalion 49, in Arauquita,northeast of the Arauca state.

The driver was killed and two other soldiers were injured in the car-bomb attack, which was presumably orchestrated by FARC guerrillas.

Colombia's four-decade-old civil war between the government, leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary groups, claims about 3,500 lives a year, most of them civilians.

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