Colombia says ELN rebels killed 2 police officers

Bogota: Colombian police said Tuesday that two officers were killed in the southwestern city of Cali in an attack by the National Liberation Army, a rebel group that stepped up attacks against the government this week.

Police said the officers were patrolling a neighborhood on motorcycles when they were hit by a roadside bomb. The officers were taken to a nearby hospital but did not survive their injuries.

The National Liberation Army, also known by its Spanish acronym ELN, launched a 72-hour “armed strike” on Sunday to protest the U.S. military build up in the Caribbean.

During these armed strikes, schools and businesses are forced to close in areas under the group’s control, while the rebels step up attacks against government targets.

The ELN has not claimed responsibility for the attack in Cali.

On Monday, Colombia’s human rights ombudswoman said the group had attacked a police station and a military base over the weekend, as it launched its armed strike. Those attacks were launched in provinces along Colombia’s border with Venezuela and resulted in the death of an ambulance driver.

Colombia’s government has been critical of the Trump administration’s efforts to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, including the deployment of U.S. warships, and fighter jets to areas near Venezuela’s coast.

Last week, President Gustavo Petro described the Trump administrations’ seizure of a sanctioned oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast as an act of “piracy.”

But Colombian officials also said Monday that the ELN’s protest against U.S. intervention “lacks any sense whatsoever” because it is targeting rural and urban communities within Colombia.

The ELN is a Marxist group inspired by the Cuban revolution and the group has an estimated 6,000 fighters in Venezuela and Colombia.