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Colombia offers record $1.4m-reward for rebel it blames for deadly bomb attack

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Officials say a rebel leader known as "Marlon" ordered the attack in which 20 people were killed.

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"Marlon", whose real name is Iván Jacob Idrobo Arredondo, is suspected of having ordered Saturday's bomb attack on the Pan-American Highway, in which 20 people were killed.

The attack is one of the deadliest targeting civilians and comes just over a month before presidential elections scheduled for 31 May.

Sánchez said the 5bn peso ($1.4m; £1m) reward for "Marlon" was the highest offered by Colombia.

The defence minister accused "Marlon" of being behind Saturday's attack as well as a series of others in the provinces of Cauca and Valle del Cauca, in south-western Colombia, over the weekend. No evidence or details have been released.

In the deadliest of these incidents, 15 women and five men were killed when an explosive device was detonated on the motorway connecting the cities of Cali and Popayán, the governor of Cauca province said.

Several buses and other vehicles were destroyed in the blast, which opened up a huge crater.

"Marlon" belongs to an armed group led by a dissident rebel known by the alias of Iván Mordisco, Colombia's most wanted man.

Mordisco once formed part of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) but broke away from the rebel group as it negotiated the 2016 peace deal with the government.

He is considered to be Colombia's most powerful dissident rebel leader. His group engages in illegal mining and extortion as well as drug trafficking.

Cauca Governor Octavio Guzmán described Saturday's explosive attack as the "most brutal and ruthless attack against the civilian population in decades".

President Gustavo Petro described those behind it as "terrorists, fascists and drug traffickers" and ordered additional troops to the region.

Petro's term ends in August of this year. Barred by the co

Source: BBC

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