BOGOTA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- At least four prison guards were killed Tuesday by alleged members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla in rural Caqueta, a department in southern Colombia, local media reported.
In the attack on a National Penitentiary and Prison Institute ( INPEC) vehicle transporting three prisoners, the prisoners were also injured, as was a guard, authorities said.
Juan Carlos Pinzon, Colombia's Defense Minister, said the FARC ambushed the vehicle, but did not rescue the prisoners.
"FARC's Third Front arrived at the site, ambushed and murdered the INPEC guards, wounding the prisoners being transported to the legal facilities (and) stole the weapons from the guards," Pinzon said.
The attack took place between the towns of El Doncello and Puerto Rico, where the injured are recovering in local hospitals.
INPEC Director Gustavo Adolfo Ricaurte said the rebels only wanted to kill the guards, as the three inmates were not rescued.
"The main target of the people who committed this ambush was to murder my guards, as they did not take the prisoners," said Ricaurte, adding "police and army forces were mobilized to the area by order of the Minister of Defense."
The killings may have been in retaliation for Monday's announcement by the Colombian military that it had killed 12 FARC rebels, four of them in the southern department of Putumayo, along the border with Ecuador and Peru.
Despite ongoing peace talks between the government and the FARC, to put an end to five decades of fighting, the two sides continue to battle each other in the field.
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