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Three Colombian soldiers have been killed and four others injured in a landmine blast in the central Meta department, according to the army on Monday.
The army said an infantry unit was hit “by the detonation of an area containing improvised explosive devices.”
Three soldiers died at the scene, while the four injured personnel were evacuated for treatment.
The government blamed the attack on a dissident faction of the former Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), led by a guerrilla known by the alias Calarca.
The attack comes more than a month into a major military offensive launched by right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella against drug-trafficking rebel groups.
FARC signed a landmark peace agreement with the Colombian government in 2016, ending five decades of conflict. Several breakaway factions, however, rejected the accord and have continued their armed activities.
De la Espriella took office on August 7 after promising to put Colombia’s rebel groups “in jail or in a grave”, with support from the United States.
His predecessor, leftist President Gustavo Petro, attempted to bring the country’s various armed groups into peace negotiations but was unsuccessful.
