Colombia battle leaves 12 rebels, 2 soldiers dead
BOGOTA, Colombia, Jan 6 (Reuters) - At least 12 Marxist rebels and two soldiers were killed on Friday in a gunfight over coca-growing land in southern Colombia that the government is trying to wrest from the cocaine-smuggling guerrillas, the army said.
The battle took place in Meta province, where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, killed 29 soldiers on a coca-eradication mission last week, an army spokesman said.
It was the biggest one-day military death toll since Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was elected in 2002 on promises of smashing the decades-old insurgency.
Colombia is the world's biggest exporter of cocaine, which is made with coca plants and has been popular in the United States since the late 1970s for the feelings of euphoria it produces among users.
After last week's battle, Uribe, whose father was killed by the rebels in the early 1980s, vowed a massive coca-eradication program in Meta's Macarena National Park, vowing to retake the area from the "miserable terrorists financed by the narcotics trade."
Thousands are killed every year and tens of thousands have been displaced by Colombia's 41-year-old guerrilla war, in which the guerrillas fight with far-right paramilitary militias over control of lucrative coca-producing land. Both groups are notorious for killing peasants suspected of cooperating with the other side.
The battle took place in Meta province, where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, killed 29 soldiers on a coca-eradication mission last week, an army spokesman said.
It was the biggest one-day military death toll since Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was elected in 2002 on promises of smashing the decades-old insurgency.
Colombia is the world's biggest exporter of cocaine, which is made with coca plants and has been popular in the United States since the late 1970s for the feelings of euphoria it produces among users.
After last week's battle, Uribe, whose father was killed by the rebels in the early 1980s, vowed a massive coca-eradication program in Meta's Macarena National Park, vowing to retake the area from the "miserable terrorists financed by the narcotics trade."
Thousands are killed every year and tens of thousands have been displaced by Colombia's 41-year-old guerrilla war, in which the guerrillas fight with far-right paramilitary militias over control of lucrative coca-producing land. Both groups are notorious for killing peasants suspected of cooperating with the other side.
posted by Marko at 1/06/2006 12:29:00 PM
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