Two Colombian soldiers were killed and four others were injured by landmines planted by leftist FARC guerrillas in the northeastern province of Norte de Santander, the military said Friday.
The incident occurred Thursday in a mountainous area outside the town of Teorama while members of the army’s 30th Brigade were patrolling the zone.
A spokesperson at brigade headquarters in Cucuta, the provincial capital, told reporters the mines killed two soldiers and injured four others.
The injured were taken to Ocaña, a city in that same region, and are being treated at its municipal hospital, according to the spokesperson, who said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the Andean nation’s largest guerrilla army, planted the explosive devices.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines said in its latest annual report that Colombia has the world’s second-highest rate of landmine-related casualties after Afghanistan.
Landmines killed and injured 1,211 people in Afghanistan and 512 people in Colombia last year, the ICBL said.
The FARC has fought a decades-old struggle against a succession of Colombian governments.
