4 Children Die Amid Shooting in Colombia
Students on a field trip were caught in a firefight Tuesday between government troops and rebels that left at least four children dead, Colombian authorities said.
Leon Jairo Franco, an official from the nearby town of Pueblorrico, said four children were killed. But Dr. Helena Restrepo of Pueblorrico’s hospital said six had died.
“There was a lot of fierce combat. They walked right into it,” said Martin Morales, director of the San Juan de Dios Hospital.
The rebels were from the leftist National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia’s second-largest guerrilla group, said Alfredo Salgado, assistant director of the national police force.
Gen. Eduardo Herrera, commander of the army’s 4th Brigade, based in Medellin, accused the ELN of using the children as “human shields” after two fighters were killed in a battle earlier in the day. There was no independent confirmation of the charge.
The children were on a trip with two teachers in the mountain municipality of Pueblorrico, 150 miles northwest of the capital, Bogota.
Morales said the two teachers escaped unharmed. The number and ages of the children were not immediately known.
Combat between Colombia’s two leftist rebel groups, government troops and police has been intense recently.
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