Dozens of Colombian rebels killed in clashes with govt troops

At least 25 rebels were killed while they attempted to seize a town in central Colombia and a rebel bomb attack in northwest Colombia killed a civilian, authorities said Saturday.

Two army troops were killed as government forces fought a pitched battle on Friday with more than 400 rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who attempted to take the town of Villa Hermosa, 150 km south of the capital Bogota, said Gen. Javier Hernan Arias, commander of the Colombian Army's 5th Division.

FARC is the oldest and largest leftist guerrilla group in Colombia, with some 17,000 to 20,000 members.

Meanwhile, a bomb allegedly placed by FARC rebels exploded in a truck parked in the main plaza of the town of San Carlos, 400 km northwest of Bogota, killing the driver and seriously wounding three passers-by, the region's police commander Col. Dagoberto Garcia told reporters in Medellin, Colombia's second-largest city.

The bomb went off when the driver was unloading his truck, which distributed goods in the town, said Garcia.

He blamed the terrorist attack on the 9th front of FARC, which had launched a wave of attacks recently to mark the group's 40th founding anniversary, which falls on May 27.

Colombia has been ravaged by a four-decade-old civil war, the longest in Latin America, which pits leftist guerrillas against paramilitary and government troops. An average of 3,500 people, most of them civilians, are killed every year in the conflict.

Source: Xinhua