The man who attacked a police academy with a car bomb belonged to the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the largest guerrilla group remaining in the country, the defense ministry said.
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The suspect in a car bombing that left 21 people dead on Thursday in the Colombian capital, Bogotá, was a member of the largest guerrilla group remaining in the country, the Colombian government said Friday.
José Aldemar Rojas Rodríguez, the suspect who was also killed that day, was part of the National Liberation Army, a Marxist rebel group known as the ELN, said Guillermo Botero, the Colombian defense minister.
The ELN did not claim responsibility, but it has increased attacks against the government since its rival guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC, signed a peace deal with the government in 2016.
The attack on Thursday, near a police academy, was the first car bombing in Bogotá in years, a gruesome reminder of an era when such attacks were the norm, as drug lords and rebel groups waged aggressive terror campaigns, killing hundreds of civilians and security forces. Since the signing of the peace accords, the Colombian government has said it turned the page on that violent era.
Scenes of the carnage near the academy told a different story. Cellphone videos shared with The New York Times on Friday and filmed by someone who was at the scene showed a burning vehicle with a dismembered torso in blue pants sprawled in front of the flames. The camera also captured images of a human foot and what appeared to be a severed head.
Rescue workers struggled to carry possible survivors out on stretchers.
