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Guerrilla dissident group claims wave of Colombian attacks / Photo: © AFP
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Guerrilla dissident group claims wave of Colombian attacks
A Colombian armed group comprised of ex-guerrillas who rejected a 2016 peace deal, claimed responsibility Friday for a wave of bomb and shooting attacks that killed seven people this week.
Two police officers and five civilians died and 28 people were injured in the attacks on Tuesday in the country's southwest.
On Friday, in a video sent to a journalists' chat, a man describing himself as commander Marlon Vasquez claimed responsibility on behalf the so-called Central General Staff (EMC).
Dressed in camouflage and surrounded by guerrillas with rifles, he said the attacks came "in the midst of the commemoration of the 61 years of struggle" of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), founded in June 1964.
The FARC -- the country's biggest rebel group -- signed a deal with the government in 2016 and laid down its arms.
But some groups rejected the demobilization process and regrouped in two structures: Segunda Marquetalia and the EMC, the biggest of the dissident groups.
Colombia is experiencing its biggest security crisis in a decade.
On Tuesday, the country was rocked by a string of coordinated attacks across the southwest, where government forces are fighting FARC dissidents.
Authorities reported 24 attacks, but the EMC said there were 40.
The group meanwhile denied any involvement in the shooting on Saturday of presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe, who remains in a critical condition.
His alleged shooter, a 15-year-old, and a man alleged to have been involved in the "logistics" of the attack, are under arrest.
A. Walsh--BTZ
