{"id":165455,"date":"2025-08-22T03:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T03:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/165455\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T03:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T03:30:11","slug":"car-bomb-and-attack-on-colombian-helicopter-kills-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/165455\/","title":{"rendered":"Car bomb and attack on Colombian helicopter kills 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) \u2014 A car bomb and a separate attack on a police helicopter in Colombia killed at least 17 people Thursday, according to authorities. President Gustavo Petro<\/a> attributed both attacks to dissidents of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, commonly known as FARC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At least 12 police officers died in the attack on a helicopter that according to authorities was transporting personnel to an area in Antioquia in northern Colombia, to eradicate coca leaf crops, the raw material for cocaine<\/a>. Petro had reported initially eight officers killed, but Antioquia Gov. Andr\u00e9s Juli\u00e1n said four others died later and three remain injured.<\/p>\n

The Antioquia governor had said on X that a drone attacked the helicopter as it flew over coca leaf crops. Colombian Defense Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said preliminary information indicates the attack caused a fire in the aircraft.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, authorities in the southwest city of Cali reported that a vehicle loaded with explosives detonated near a military aviation school, killing five people and injuring more than 30. The Colombian air force did not immediately provide additional details of the explosion.<\/p>\n

Petro initially blamed the Gulf Clan<\/a>, the country\u2019s largest active drug cartel, for the attack on the helicopter. He said the aircraft was targeted in retaliation for a cocaine seizure that allegedly belonged to the group.<\/p>\n

The president said an alleged member of the dissident group was arrested in the area of the explosion.<\/p>\n

FARC dissidents, who rejected a peace agreement with the government in 2016, and members of the Gulf Clan both operate in Antioquia.<\/p>\n

Coca leaf cultivation is on the rise in Colombia. The area under cultivation reached a record 253,000 hectares in 2023, according to the latest report available from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/latin-america<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) \u2014 A car bomb and a separate attack on a police helicopter in Colombia killed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":165456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[95235,396,1613,12575,4219,57,95233,6604,1612,2936,50,8960,80,95234,4217,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-165455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-andrs-julin","9":"tag-bombings","10":"tag-central-america","11":"tag-colombia","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-gustavo-petro","15":"tag-international-news","16":"tag-latin-america","17":"tag-law-enforcement","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-pedro-sanchez","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-revolutionary-armed-forces-of-colombia","22":"tag-south-america","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115070305994985919","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}