Bogot, Colombia:

Three people died, including a policeman, and eight others were wounded in a car bombing in a region of Colombia where a leftist rebel group remains active, officials said Saturday.

“An explosive charge placed in a private vehicle was detonated, causing the death of police officer Santiago Moreno Rios along with a shopkeeper and a man,” the country’s defense ministry said on social network X.

El atentado terrorista en Taminango, Nariño, fue perpetrado por el frente ‘Franco Benavides’, bajo el mando de alias ‘Mata’, del autodenominado Estado Mayor Central.

Se ofrece una recompensa de hasta 50 millones de pesos por información que dé con la captura de los responsables… pic.twitter.com/OmrUZGkI9y

— Mindefensa (@mindefensa) June 22, 2024

It said two other officers and six civilians were wounded in the Friday explosion in the southwestern Narino department.

The incident occurred in a region where a FARC dissident group called Estado Mayor Central (EMC) operates, according to authorities.

The EMC and Segunda Marquetalia are two splinter groups that refused to disarm when the FARC — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, once the most powerful guerrilla organization on the continent — signed a peace deal in 2016.

Friday’s attack came the same day rebels in the Cesar department killed one policeman and wounded another.

President Gustavo Petro expressed solidarity with the families of victims of both attacks and said “those who choose the path of war over peace will continue to face the full weight of the law.”

The attacks come ahead of negotiations on Monday in Caracas between the Colombian government and representatives of Segunda Marquetalia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)