Colombia Military Airstrike Kills 20 Guerrillas In Major Anti-Rebel Operation

Twenty guerrillas have been killed in Colombia in the latest bombing raid on insurgent-controlled areas ordered by the government, President Abelardo de la Espriella said Monday, describing it as the deadliest operation of its kind carried out under his administration so far. "We neutralized 20 narco-terrorists, captured five... and rescued two minors," de la Espriella said in a video posted on X, detailing the results of what authorities named Operation Azarías, a strike that has quickly become one of the most significant military actions of his young presidency. The operation took place at dawn Monday in the department of Guaviare in southern Colombia, targeting guerrillas under the command of the country's most-wanted rebel, Néstor Gregorio Vera, known widely by his alias, Iván Mordisco.

According to the president, the strike specifically targeted the Carolina Ramírez Front and its top commander, known by the alias "El Tigre" or "Pintado," who Colombian authorities say directed terrorist actions across multiple departments and was wanted through an Interpol notice for attacks on public security forces and involvement in the recruitment of children and adolescents into armed ranks.

Authorities later confirmed through fingerprint analysis that El Tigre was among those killed in the strike, according to the president's office, marking a significant tactical success for the operation beyond the overall death toll. The deaths come as the newly elected hardline president, a staunch ally of US President Donald Trump, ramps up military operations against armed groups funded by drug trafficking, illegal mining and extortion.

De la Espriella said the operation, conducted in the rural area of Lagos del Dorado in the municipality of Miraflores, affected a total of 27 members of the Carolina Ramírez structure when accounting for those killed, captured and rescued. Authorities reported seizing 26 rifles, four machine guns, three pistols, ten camp equipment sets and 13 vests during the raid, which the government said dealt a significant blow to the group's military, logistical and financial capabilities in the region.

Monday's strike follows two other deadly airstrikes against guerrilla positions earlier in August, part of an intensifying offensive since de la Espriella took office earlier this year. One of those earlier strikes, on August 27, killed 10 people from a rival dissident faction led by an operative known as "Calarcá," including three minors, according to authorities, illustrating the recurring toll the ongoing conflict has taken on younger recruits caught up in Colombia's fragmented post-FARC insurgency landscape.

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Mordisco leads the Central General Staff (EMC), a dissident group that broke away from the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) after it signed a landmark 2016 peace deal with the Colombian government. The EMC remains one of the largest outlawed armed groups operating in the South American nation, which is now grappling with its worst violence in a decade as rival factions compete for control over drug trafficking corridors, illegal mining operations and extortion networks across the country's south.

A source from Colombia's forensics authority told AFP separately that four minors were among the dead in a different airstrike carried out the previous week, underscoring growing concern among rights groups, who warn that children and teenagers are increasingly being recruited into armed groups through sophisticated social media campaigns designed to draw in vulnerable youth from rural communities.

The EMC and rival factions, including forces loyal to Calarcá, have been locked in an escalating territorial dispute across Guaviare and neighboring departments including Meta, Caquetá and Vaupés, with previous clashes between the groups, including one in May, reportedly leaving around 50 people dead, most of them from Mordisco's faction. Another particularly bloody episode in January in the town of El Retorno left 20 people dead, highlighting the sustained intensity of the infighting even before the current government's offensive began. De la Espriella vowed the military campaign against Mordisco's networks would continue in the weeks ahead. "We're going after their commanders, their men, their weapons and their criminal finances," he said, adding that the armed groups "will have no safe territory to hide" as his government presses forward with what it has described as a sustained campaign to dismantle the country's remaining narco-insurgent structures.

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