BOGOTA, Dec 9, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Four suspected members of Colombia's biggest drug cartel were killed last week in airstrikes on their bases, President Gustavo Petro announced Monday.

The bombardments of the Gulf Clan in the country's northwest are the first against the group under Colombia's left-wing president.

Writing on the social network X, Petro said the raids in the department of Antioquia "left four dead among the cartel's members" and added that eight rifles were seized.

He said that the bombardments had "seriously damaged" the Gulf Clan's attempts to build up its forces in the region.

Petro also confirmed that four soldiers were accidentally killed in the operation while descending from a helicopter.

The Colombian army used airstrikes under successive right-wing governments for over half a century to combat left-wing guerrilla groups like the Marxist FARC movement, which laid down arms after an historic peace deal in 2016.

Antioquia is one of the strongholds of the Gulf Clan, which controls a vast drug trafficking, human trafficking and illegal gold mining empire.

The group's leader, Dairo Antonio Usuga, was captured in October 2022 and extradited to the United States, where was sentenced to 45 years in prison for cocaine smuggling.

Petro has launched talks with several armed groups since coming to power.

In early 2023, he announced an unilateral ceasefire with the Gulf Clan but it quickly collapsed.