BOGOTA (Reuters) - Five Colombian indigenous guards, tasked with protecting the country’s tribal reservations, were killed in a confrontation, possibly with dissident rebel fighters on Tuesday, the military said.

The attack on the guards by “presumed members of a residual organized armed group” - a phrase used by the military to refer to former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels who refused to demobilize under a 2016 peace deal - took place in Tacueyo, in southwestern Cauca province.

The armed group attacked to free three group members captured by the guards, the military said in a statement. Six other people were injured.

Troops have been moved to the area, it added.

Indigenous communities are frequent victims of violence by armed groups in the Andean country, as rebels and crime gangs seek to control lucrative drug trafficking and illegal mining territory.

The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia decried the attack on Twitter, asking “when will the massacre end?”