Gunmen kill members of indigenous Colombian group

Hooded men in uniforms without insignia shot and killed 12 members of the Awa indigenous group, including five children, on a reserve in a region plagued by the cocaine trade, Colombian authorities said.

Indigenous leaders and government officials said the killings took place when 10 gunmen opened fire on two houses in the Gran Rosario reserve, about 50 miles inland from the port of Tumaco in Narino state. The reserve has about 1,500 Awa.

The state governor, Antonio Navarro, said the victims were all related. The attack killed five men, two women, two boys, two girls and a baby. He said two males, a 10-year-old and a 20-year-old, were wounded in the gunfire but fled and survived.

The identity of the killers was not immediately known.

In February, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels acknowledged killing eight Awa Indians at a different but nearby reservation for allegedly working as informants for the army.

The area is rife with coca plantations and illegal armed groups – leftist rebels as well as far-right militias, both of whom typically wear uniforms - that process the leaf into cocaine and smuggle it out of Colombia.