Seven Guerrillas Killed Colombia Clash
Colombian army troops killed at least seven FARC guerrillas Tuesday in an operation in the central department of Tolima, the military said.
The latest fighting comes after 14 guerrillas were reported killed over the weekend in an army air and ground assault on a rebel base in a rural area near the Venezuelan border.
In a statement issued from Madrid, where he was on an official visit, President Juan Manuel Santos praised the military operation, saying it was critically important not to ease up on the rebels, even with peace talks underway for more than a year.
"The military offensive will continue until we have an accord, just as if there no talks going on," he told Spanish media.
The Colombian government and the FARC have been in peace talks since November 2012, but Santos has vowed to be relentless in pressuring the country's largest leftist guerrilla group.
The army said the latest combat occurred in the Tolima municipality of Planadas, a mountainous area east of the city of Cali.
It said the preliminary result was "the death of seven members of the Heroes of Marquetalia and the Alfredo Gonzalez mobile columns."
The army said five rebels, including one who was wounded, were captured during the operation.
An army spokesman said fighting was continuing in the area.
A half century of hostilities between the leftist FARC and the government in Bogota has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced some 4.5 million Colombians.
The government blamed FARC for a bombing attack Monday in the southwestern town of Toribio, which killed one person.
It said another FARC bombing last week claimed one life and injured about two dozen others.
Source: Agence France Presse
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