Trash can bomb kills 7 at Colombia fair

[Bacchus39]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080816/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/colombia_bomb;_ylt=AombHW1dhkP7vO2opWSKtEC3IxIF

Trash can bomb kills 7 at Colombia fair Fri Aug 15, 9:28 PM ET



BOGOTA, Colombia - A bomb exploded during a crowded street fair in northwestern Colombia, killing seven people and wounding 17, police said Friday.

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The device was hidden in a trash can beside a lamppost in the center of Ituango, a coffee growing and cattle ranching town where rebels have launched similar attacks on civilians in the past, state police commander Col. Luis Eduardo Martinez said.

Police arrested a man suspected of ties to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, shortly after Thursday night's attack, Martinez said.

Seven men ages 18 to 25 were killed and 17 people were seriously injured, including at least 10 minors, police and Ituango Mayor Carlos Mario Gallo said. Several nearby shops were destroyed in the blast, and 32 other people were treated for minor injuries at local clinics, Gallo said. Most had been gathered near a local plaza for a concert at the time of the explosion.

"It was a cruel terrorist attack, to surprise a population as they celebrate," Interior Minister Fabio Valencia told Bogota-based Caracol radio. "Terrorists operate like that."

Investigators still haven't determined the amount or type of explosive or exact reasons for the attack — the first to hit Ituango in at least two years, Martinez said.

Colombia has been battling the FARC, Latin America's largest guerrilla army, for four decades