Car Bomb Targets Colombian Soldiers
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A car bomb exploded as two military trucks passed by in a working-class district of the Colombian capital on Monday, killing a civilian and wounding at least 10 soldiers, authorities said.
A white Mazda packed with 33 to 44 pounds of explosives as the first of two wood-paneled, canvas-topped trucks carrying some 50 soldiers drove by, said Gen. Luis Gomez Heredia, commander of the metropolitan police.
Gomez Heredia said three of the 10 injured were severely wounded.
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The dead civilian had been riding past on a bicycle when the bomb exploded, at the end of morning rush hour, next to a park where no one was reported injured.
Windows were blown out more than a block away.
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It was the first deadly bombing in Bogota since April 7, when a child was killed and 20 people wounded when a bomb went off in a bus.
Colombia's military and police have been on high alert for possible attacks ahead of President Alvaro Uribe's inauguration for a second term Aug. 8.
Four years ago, when Uribe first was elected president, the country's largest rebel group — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC — launched a series of bombings that killed 21 people.
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Although the government is at war with rebels in the countryside, attacks in the capital have been rare since 2003, when a car bomb in an exclusive social club killed 36 people.
Authorities offered a reward of US$400,000 for information on those responsible for the attack.