An operation by the Armed Forces of Colombia against a Clan del Golfo base in the department of Chocó has left, preliminarily, six people dead and one captured, according to confirmation from the country’s president, Abelardo de la Espriella.
The offensive was carried out in the early hours of Wednesday by units of the Command against Narcotrafficking and Transnational Threats (CONAT), in coordination with the Air Force, and marks the sixth bombing ordered by the head of state since he assumed the Presidency in Casa de Nariño.
As reported by the Colombian newspaper "El Espectador", de la Espriella has warned that the number of dead could increase in the coming hours due to the difficulty of the terrain. "We have six killed, one captured, but there are more. What happens is that it was on a slope, and we are looking for more bodies," the president said, advancing that this Thursday a complete report on the operation will be provided.
In addition to the casualties and the capture, the security forces have seized an important arsenal of weapons, explosives and ammunition that, according to military intelligence reports cited by the same outlet, were intended for attacks against the Public Force and against the civilian population of that area of the country.
The bombing coincides with the decision of the Superior Court of Bogotá to annul the ruling that had partially limited the Government's aerial attack policy. That precautionary measure, approved in mid-September, prohibited this type of military action when the presence of minors recruited by armed groups was established, a fact corroborated by the director of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, who counted eight minors killed in these operations.
After the judicial ruling, the Presidency celebrated the revocation and emphasized that the bombings are carried out under "strict compliance with the Constitution, the law and International Humanitarian Law".