BOGOTÁ, March 12, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - At least five soldiers were killed Tuesday in a bomb attack by dissident FARC guerrillas in a key cocaine-producing region of southwestern Colombia, the army said.

A military convoy was traveling in the restive Micay Canyon region when their vehicles were "attacked with an explosive device" buried in a road embankment, the army said in a statement on social media platform X.

The attack was "apparently perpetrated by members of the dissident organized armed group, the Carlos Patinos structure, and has so far left two non-commissioned officers and three professional soldiers dead," as well as three soldiers seriously wounded, the army said.

The soldiers were carrying out a mission to reinstall a bridge in the rural town of La Hacienda that in early March was destroyed by Carlos Patino militants, it added.

The group is tied to the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), a group of dissidents from the now-defunct FARC guerrillas who did not sign a historic peace agreement with the Colombian government in 2016.

"I regret, condemn and reject the vile terrorist attack by the Carlos Patino structure... against the army convoy," Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on X.

The attack comes days after 28 police officers and a soldier held hostage in the same region were released Saturday, with fresh tensions erupting in the area after their evacuation.

The 29 men had been detained on Thursday after a day of clashes between residents and security forces, part of a government military operation aimed at ending drug-related violence in the region, which has one of the highest concentrations of coca crops in the country.

The government had said the officers were held by the EMC guerrilla group, for whom the Micay Canyon region is a stronghold.

The kidnappings were a major embarrassment -- and a stern challenge -- for Colombia's government, which is struggling with its worst unrest in a decade involving spasms of violence in several parts of the country.

Since October, Bogota has been trying to retake control of parts of southwest Cauca Department from the EMC.

President Gustavo Petro's government is proposing an ambitious crop substitution program to combat the drug trafficking economy, a strategy that locals have denounced as a campaign of "forced eradication" of coca crops.