In an attack on an army base in the province of Norte de Santander, at least nine Colombian soldiers were murdered.
The National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, according to the authorities, fired handmade mortar bombs at the base in the El Carmen municipality.
The incident occurs while the government and the ELN are engaged in peace talks as part of President Gustavo Petro’s plan to bring “total peace” to Colombia.
The offenders, according to Mr. Petro, are “still utterly far from peace.”
Seven of the nine fatalities were enlisting in the military as required. Additionally, the strike injured eight soldiers.
Since November, peace talks between the two parties have been ongoing, although no bilateral ceasefire has been reached.
The incident took place in a region that is considered to be an ELN stronghold.
The assault—the worst since the three-year pause in peace talks—is another setback to President Petro’s goal of persuading all of Colombia’s illegal armed factions to lay down their arms permanently.
The government broke the ceasefire it had arranged with the Gulf Clan, Colombia’s major drug trafficking group, last week.
The first left-leaning candidate to be elected president of Colombia is Mr. Petro.
After the ELN detonated a car bomb at a police academy in the nation’s capital, Bogotá, in 2019, his right-wing predecessor in government, Iván Duque, halted negotiations with the group. In that explosion, 22 individuals perished.
The government delegation and guarantor nations involved in the peace negotiations have been invited by Mr. Petro to a meeting on Monday where they will debate the future of the peace process.