A police officer wounded during an ambush by suspected Shining Path rebels armed with machine guns died Thursday, bringing the victim count up to five.
Officer Próspero Martínez Galindo died late last night, after spending two days in a military hospital’s intensive care unit.
Some 40 guerrillas armed with automatic weapons and hand grenades ambushed a four-car police convoy in the coca-producing Huallaga valley at the height of kilometer 23 of the Federico Basadre Highway, as the convoy was leaving Tingo María, located in the Huánuco region of Peru’s central jungle.
Five police officers, including two members of the Special Operations Unit, or Diroes, were killed, and three remain hospitalized and in critical condition.
