A car bomb killed two children and their uncle as they walked along a mountain road in rural southern Colombia, police said today, blaming the deaths on a bungled attempt by Marxist rebels to kill security force members.
The car bomb was probably left on the side of the road near the town of Florida, in Cauca province, by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as a trap for passing military patrols, police said.
But it exploded when the boy and girl, aged eight and nine, and their uncle, all members of a native Indian community, went up to the car while on a walk to visit a relative.
A woman identified as the children's grandmother appeared on local television sobbing as she recounted how she had escaped the blast because she had sat down by the road to rest.
The FARC have a heavy presence in the Florida area, which is one of the rural regions from which they have demanded the government temporarily withdraw troops in order to negotiate a swap of jailed guerrillas for hostages.
The government has rejected the rebel demand, although it says it wants to negotiate the release of 63 hostages including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans -- US Defense Department contractors captured on a mission to find drug crops in 2003.