Bogota, Nov 8 (AP) A drone attack on a military base in northern Colombia killed three soldiers and injured at least 16, Colombia’s army said in a statement Saturday.

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Authorities have not said who carried out the attack in Santa Rosa del Sur, a small town on the foothills of the San Lucas mountain range. The area around Santa Rosa is rich in gold mines and has long been disputed by the Gulf Clan, the National Liberation Army and smaller groups led by former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Footage shared on social media showed clouds of smoke emerging from the base following three explosions, and soldiers seeking protection in shelters made from sandbags.

“Those who were behind this attack … will have nowhere to hide,” President Abelardo de la Espriella said in a post on X Saturday. “Every attack against our soldiers strengthens our resolve to defend Colombia.”

Violence has intensified in several rural areas of Colombia since de la Espriella took office in August.

The conservative leader cancelled peace talks with the nation’s remaining rebel groups and has taken a more confrontational approach that includes using more airstrikes, militarising some cities and creating joint task forces to defend strategic assets, including a pipeline that runs from the Caribbean coast to central Colombia.

Some drug gangs and rebel groups have responded by stepping up their attacks on Colombia’s armed forces. Last week, a military base in Tolima province was targeted with missiles made from gas canisters, in an attack that killed four civilians. In the border city of Cucuta, police have been attacked multiple times with remotely activated bombs.

Before de la Espriella’s term began in August, Colombia’s government had been staging multiple peace talks with rebel groups, but with little success. De la Espriella’s government has argued that drug gangs and rebel groups used ceasefires granted to them by the government to consolidate their grip over rural areas, where they tax local businesses and profit from the drug trade.

A peace deal in 2016 between Colombia’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, led to the demobilisation of more than 14,000 fighters and enabled the former rebels to form a political party.

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But in recent years, smaller groups have been fighting over territory abandoned by the FARC guerrillas.

According to ACLED, a group that monitors conflicts around the world, state forces and illegal armed groups carried out 34 attacks with bombs or explosives in Colombia during the four-week period that ended on Oct 16 – a 9% increase from last year’s four-week average. (AP) ARB