AT least 11 Colombian police officers were wounded in an attack against their truck using explosives in the southwestern city of Cali, President Ivan Duque said today.

The truck was badly damaged in the blast. No civilians was reported injured.

“We condemn the cowardly terrorist attack against members of the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad in the city’s Puerto Rellena area,” Duque said on Twitter.

“We sympathise with the 11 uniformed officers wounded in the attack, three of them seriously,” added the conservative president, who did not give details about the alleged perpetrator.

Cali’s security undersecretary Jimmy Dranguet told AFP it was an attack “with explosives.”

With 2.2 million inhabitants, Cali is the third-largest city in Colombia and one of the most violent in Latin America.

It is in one of the biggest coca cultivation areas in Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer.

Colombia is officially at peace after signing a pact with the FARC guerrilla group in 2016 to end more than a half-century of armed conflict.

But it has seen a flare-up of violence in recent months due to fighting over territory and resources by dissident guerrillas, the ELN rebel group, paramilitary forces and drug cartels. – AFP, January 8, 2022.