Powerful Car Bomb Kills 7 In Colombia

A car bomb exploded outside a police station Thursday in the center of the violence-plagued northern town of Apartado, killing at least seven people and injuring 49.

Police blamed the attack in the capital of the banana-growing region of Uraba near Panama on leftist guerrillas who are battling paramilitary groups.

The bomb exploded in front of the Pescador Hotel at 8:50 a.m. in the town, 215 miles northwest of Bogota. Police Gen. Alfredo Salgado estimated its size at 110 pounds.

The dead included a police officer and a young boy.

The local military commander, Gen. Ivan Ramirez, said the bomb exploded 60 feet from the police station.

“The hotel was destroyed, eight homes were badly damaged and the roof was torn off the police station,” Ramirez told Caracol radio. He blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country’s largest and oldest rebel group.

“This is a form of retaliation of the narco-guerillas” to counter the army’s anti-drug offensive in the region, Ramirez said.

The group’s main source of revenue comes from “taxes” and protection money it charges drug producers and traffickers.