Colombian Troops Kill at Least 25 Rebels, Paramilitary Fighters

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, September 07, 2003

Colombian Troops Kill at Least 25 Rebels, Paramilitary Fighters

Colombian government troops killed at least 25 guerrillas and paramilitary fighters Saturday in three separate military operations in central Colombia, military officials said.

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Colombian government troops killed at least 25 guerrillas and paramilitary fighters Saturday in three separate military operations in central Colombia, military officials said.

An army spokesman said 16 rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were killed near Chita village, 240 km northeast of Bogota, as government forces, backed by gunships, stormed a camp of the rebels. The army also seized 16 assault-rifles, ammunition, bomb-cylinders and documents in the camp.

But the spokesman declined to confirm whether there were casualties on his side in the operation.

The army also gunned down three suspected members from the National Liberation Army (ELN) in a rural area outside Cocorna, 145 km north of Bogota.

The FARC and the ELN are the two largest rebel groups in Colombia, with 17,000 and 4,500 members respectively.

In the operation near Sucre, 140 km north of Bogota, the government troops killed six paramilitary fighters.

Colombia has been ravaged by a four-decade-long civil war, the longest in Latin America, in which government forces, leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries have fought one another. An average of 3,500 people, mostly civilians, are killed each year in the conflicts.

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