ASUNCION: Eight Paraguayan soldiers died Saturday in a roadside explosion, the government said, blaming it on a leftist guerrilla group.
Interior Minister Francisco de Vargas said the attack occurred on a rural road near the village of Arroyito, some 500 kilometers (300 miles) north of Asuncion.
“They placed explosives in the road where a patrol routinely passes.
Because of the manner in which it was done, we believe it was an attack by the known criminal group EPP,” he said, using the Spanish acronym for the Paraguayan People’s Army.
De Vargas said eight soldiers died in the attack.
Since the guerrilla group first appeared in 2008, it has killed some 50 people in attacks, the majority of them police, soldiers and cattle raisers, according to police.
The group has been active in the cattle-raising region where Saturday’s explosion occurred.
