Bomb Blast In Colombia
A bomb blast ripped through a Bogota restaurant frequented by Colombian policemen around midday Friday, killing three officers and a 5-year-old boy, police said.
The restaurant is near the Fatima Police Station, one of the larger police stations in Bogota, according to John Portela, spokesman for mayor Antanas Mockus.
Nine other people were hurt in the explosion in the working class Fatima district of Colombia's capital, a police spokesman said.
Police think the bomb was the work of the country's largest Marxist guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the spokesman said.
Officers sealed off the street, and local television showed yellow-suited rescue workers moving about under the looming bulk of a distant Andean mountain.
Colombia has been suffering through a wave of terrorist attacks outside of Bogota in recent weeks. FARC, has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks on electricity towers around the country that have caused power rationing in three states.
Colombia is locked in a 38-year-old war pitting the armed forces against leftist rebels and far-right paramilitary outlaws. About 40,000 people have been killed in the fighting in the past decade.
The FARC is Colombia's largest insurgency, with roughly 16,000 fighters. A smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army and an illegal right-wing paramilitary are also involved in the war.
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