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Four police officers, killed while moving bomb in Colombia

Four police officers and a civilian were killed on Saturday as officers were moving a powerful bomb allegedly planted by leftist rebels as part of an attempt to kill a city mayor, authorities said.

Police officers found the explosive before dawn on Saturday hidden in a water meter in front of the radio station where on Thursday a car bomb nearly killed the pro-government mayor of Neiva, Cielo Gonzalez.

BOMB REMOVAL

Police removed the bomb and were transporting it in a police vehicle when it exploded in downtown Neiva, killing four officers, General Jorge Castro, chief of Colombia's police, told Caracol Radio.

Among the dead was Captain Carlos Cardona, local head of the Sijin police intelligence unit.

A woman inside her home near the explosion was also killed.

Castro said the device was part of Thursday's failed attack against Gonzalez by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Latin America's oldest and most potent insurgency.

THIRD BOMB

He said police were searching for a possible third device that may have been left by the rebels in Neiva, 240km southwest of Bogota.

"We're doing a through sweep, not stopping our work until we've searched every site," Castro said.

Thursday's blast occurred as police were towing away a car loaded with explosives that had been parked in front of the HJKK radio station, where Gonzalez was giving a regular weekly interview.

Eight people were injured during the attack, two of them seriously, and a bus and several cars were also destroyed.

Neiva has long been engulfed by violence because of its location in the heart of Colombia's impoverished south -- a major FARC stronghold.

ATTEMPTED KILLINGS

Gonzalez has been the target of at least two other assassination attempts since 2003.

Gonzalez that said she would reinforce her security and remain in Neiva, despite having received an offer from President Alvaro Uribe to relocate her office to the capital city.

Authorities have offered a reward of about US$435,000 for information leading to the perpetrators of the attack, which may have been in retaliation for a tough new government stance against the rebels.

On a visit on Tuesday to the state of Huila, whose capital is Neiva, Uribe ruled out amnesty for leftist rebels under an eventual peace deal, reversing a long-standing blueprint for ending Colombia's five-decade civil conflict.

The 15,000-member FARC had demanded amnesty during three years of failed negotiations with the administration of Uribe's predecessor.
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