30 Colombian paramilitaries killed in fight with rebels

Intense fighting between a paramilitary group and rebels in western Colombia left some 30 paramilitaries dead on Friday, a regional police chief said.

Mario Gutierrez said the conflict broke out in Alto de Osos, some 300 km west of Bogota, between the paramilitary Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Some 30 AUC fighters were killed in the fighting, Gutierrez said, adding that police had captured four wounded rebel militants, as well as a doctor and a nurse who appeared to belong to FARC.

It was the second consecutive day of reported heavy fighting in that area. On Thursday, government sources said similar battles took place and killed 75.

FARC has been fighting the Colombian government for social revolution since the 1960s, while the paramilitary group was set up two decades ago as an outlawed force against the rebels. Both groups have reportedly become heavily involved in drug trafficking.

FARC, with about 17,000 fighters, is the largest armed rebel groups in Colombia and controls nearly 40 percent of the territory.

The 20,000-strong AUC signed a demobilization agreement with the Colombian government in November 2003, which requires AUC to stop fighting immediately and demobilize all its members by the end of 2005.

Source: Xinhua