Bogota, Colombia – Rebels burst into a hotel in southern Colombia on Monday and killed at least seven town councilors, officials said.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels arrived in a truck disguised as police, walked into the hotel and fired on the councilors while they were having a working lunch, said Gilberto Toro, head of the Colombian Federation of Municipalities.
Gen. Alberto Ruiz, operations chief of the National Police, said seven councilors were killed, while Toro said eight died. The differing counts could not be reconciled immediately.
Toro said several people were injured in the attack in the town of Rivera, 150 miles southwest of Bogota.
“It’s cowardly to kill unarmed civilians,” he said.
It was the second deadly attack on civilians in three days by Colombia’s largest rebel group, a spike in violence ahead of congressional elections March 12. On Saturday, the FARC attacked a minibus in the southern state of Caqueta, killing nine passengers including a 9-year-old boy.
The group has been fighting the government for 41 years. The conflict claims thousands of lives each year.
