While security, wounded care and scene assessment activities continue, municipal and military authorities confirmed that the armed attack on a unit of the Army's Fourth Brigade in Frontino, Antioquia, left six soldiers dead.
Three soldiers were initially reported dead and five wounded after the attack, but after support and medical care, three other soldiers were said to have died. Apparently, they are uniformed men who suffered serious injuries and some that it had not been possible to locate during the early hours of the morning.
The Seventh Division of the Army confirmed that the soldiers killed are:
SLP. Edward Fernando Agudelo Castaño.
SLP. Emir Esli Baldovino Zabaleta.
SLP. Yonaiker Cordero Rivera.
SL-18. Juan Daniel Lozano Oviedo.
SL:18. Kevin Luis Altamiranda Cantero.
SL-18. Hector Fabio Buelvas Ospina.
So far, a uniformed man remains missing and is wanted by units on the ground. The number of injured left by the ambush was five soldiers, several of them seriously, who were transferred to Medellín. According to Caracol Radio, one of the injured had to be amputated with one leg.
General Juvenal Díaz, commander of the Seventh Division of the Army, assured the newspaper El Tiempo that the attack occurred with an improvised explosive device that had been installed on the road, which was activated by members of the Gulf Clan when one of the Fourth Division's vehicles passed by.
According to him, this type of criminal action responds to the operations they have carried out against that organization in the northern area of Antioquia, with the neutralization of several leaders, as well as the recruitment of former members of the FARC who were experts in the use of explosives.
All the information that has been known is unofficial and it is hoped that when the security operation, the evacuation of personnel and the evaluation of the scene ends, a definitive account of the event that already mourns the Military Forces will be delivered. Likewise, the families of the deceased uniformed must first be informed.
“We condemn terrorist attack perpetrated against our army troops in Frontino, Antioquia. We strengthen offensive operations in this region to find the whereabouts of those responsible #SinTregua,” said the command.
“Cowardly Gulf Clan attack claimed the lives of 3 soldiers, heroes of the Homeland, a miserable retaliation against the hard blows we inflicted on him in #SemanaSanta. We reinforce the presence of troops to find the whereabouts of these bandits. #ConTodasNuestrasFuerzas”, said the Minister of Defense, Diego Molano.
The Seventh Division of the Army reported in the early morning of April 20 that a unit of the Fourth Brigade was moving in the town of Nutibara, in the municipality of Frontino in Antioquia, when it was the target of an attack with explosives.
Apparently, it would have been an ambush, after the military carried out operations against the Gulf Clan in the district of Murrí, which was carried out when they were returning to the town of Frontino and were very close to Frontino, Blu Radio reported.
According to the institution, once the attack occurred, first aid was provided to injured personnel and evacuation began to take them to a medical center. The nearby municipalities, according to the mayor of Frontino, Jorge Hugo Elejalde, told Noticias Caracol, have had five ambulances to evacuate the wounded.
“We are told that there are 8 wounded of whom we already have two at the Nutibara health center, we are sending them to Frontino and we have five ambulances in the area. We reject this insane act,” said the president according to the Caracol Radio station.
“This command sends its sincere and heartfelt condolences to the families of these heroes of the homeland who were vilely murdered while fulfilling their mission of protecting civilians and their resources,” the Army said in a statement.
The troops of the Fourth Brigade deployed military actions to secure the area, after fighting reportedly broke out with the Gulf Clan, as well as to locate the soldiers who had been displaced after the attack.
The Army attributed the armed attack to the Edwin Román Velásquez bstructure, of the Gulf Clan, whose main leader is alias “Alberto 01″ and is present between the municipalities of Peque and Ituango, in the north of the department of Antioquia.
Several military operations have been carried out against this structure in recent months, with the capture of leaders such as Yovani or alias Orejas, criminals of a broad criminal record, with more than a decade in armed organizations.
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