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Military Clashes Kill More Than 100 in Colombia
At least 15 soldiers and 87 leftist rebels have been killed in military clashes over the past three days in the northwest, northeast and south of Colombia, military sources said Wednesday.
Commander of Colombian Armed Forces General Fernando Tapias told a news conference that the conflicts between government troops and rebel guerrillas took place in the provinces of Cordoba, Huila, Tolima, Caqueta, Santander and Arauca.
The bloodiest fighting in a border area, 800 kilometers northwest of Bogota, killed two officers, 11 soldiers and at least 60 rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest guerrilla group in the south American country, Tapias said.
In other military operations at the same time, government troops killed 27 rebels, wounded more than 50 guerrillas and destroyed 16 barracks of the guerrilla forces.
Colombian Air Force Commander General Hector Velasco noted that more than 100 insurgents died as air force planes supporting ground troops dropped bombs on the rebel forces.
Colombia is locked in a 37-year-long civil war between leftist rebels, far-right paramilitaries and the government armed forces. About 200,000 people have been killed and an average of 3,000 kidnappings take place every year.
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