BOGOTA (AFP) – Thirteen people were wounded when assailants launched home-made explosives at an oil camp in eastern Colombia, the army said late Sunday.

The victims “were at a religious gathering inside the camp … when they were attacked in a vile and cowardly manner with those non-conventional weapons,” the army statement read.

The army blamed leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas for the attack in the department of Arauca.

The rebels rarely attack oil camps, but have often targeted the 780 kilometer-long Cano Limon-Covenas oil pipeline, one of the country’s main pipelines that goes through the region to the Caribbean coast for export.

The ELN has recently begun peace talks with the government of President Juan Manuel Santos.

The larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas have been negotiating a peace deal with the Santos administration since November 2012.

Mining Minister Amylkar Acosta told Radio Caracol that the wounded were out of danger, and that damages were being assessed.

an/ch/hmn