BOGOTA: Five soldiers were killed in an overnight attack by leftist Farc rebels, the Colombian army said yesterday, just days after peace talks between the warring factions began in Norway.
Guerrillas armed with “unconventional explosives” attacked a military patrol in the southwest town of Puerto Asis, on the border with Ecuador, the army said on its website.
Three soldiers were also wounded in the attack.
The attack came one day after at least two suspected rebels were killed when the air force planes bombed a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia camp on the Pacific coast near the border with Panama.
“It is possible that there are more people buried (at the camp) due to the effect of the bombs,” Admiral Rodolfo Amaya, the navy officer in charge of the joint military operation, said on Friday.
Peace talks aimed at ending the nearly five decades of a conflict that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives were launched formally on Thursday in Oslo. The Colombian government has refused to call a ceasefire during negotiations.
The last attempt at talks collapsed in 2002 when authorities determined that the guerrillas were regrouping in a vast demilitarised zone. AFP
