Colombia says 4 soldiers killed in rebel attack

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Colombia says 4 soldiers killed in rebel attack

Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer – Tue Mar 24, 12:53 pm ETBOGOTA – An attack by leftist rebels on an elite counter-guerrilla unit killed four soldiers and left six others missing in the country's southeastern plains, the defense minister announced Tuesday.

A platoon from the 62nd Counter-guerrilla Batallion was retrieving the bodies of two rebels killed in a bombardment when the soldiers came under mortar attack, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told reporters.

He said one soldier was wounded in Monday's attack by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in an area of Guaviare state known as Cano Flauta. The Guaviare region is mostly flat, laced with rivers, thick jungle and plantations of coca, the basis for cocaine, which finances Colombia's illegal armed groups.

A lieutenant and five soldiers are missing, Santos said.

The killings bring to 74 the number of Colombian soldiers killed in combat this year, according to the Defense Ministry. In addition, 28 police officers have been killed.

Colombia's U.S.-backed military has made significant inroads against the FARC since 2005, when 717 soldiers and police were killed in combat by Defense Ministry count. Last year, that number dropped to 373, by official count.

Military analysts have speculated that the FARC could launch serious attacks this week, the one-year anniversary of the death of the rebel movement's founding commander, Manuel Marulanda.

Colombia's news media have carried reports in recent days about the armed forces supposedly closing in on a top FARC commander named Jorge Briceno, or "Mono Jojoy" after finding caves in the Macarena mountain range just west of Guaviare believed to have served as hideouts for his fighters.

Briceno is the FARC's field marshal and commands its Eastern Bloc, which operates in Guaviare.