Bogota (dpa) – Thirty-two leftist rebels were killed Monday in a joint military and police raid in central Colombia, President Juan Manuel Santos said. Santos noted that a further four members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were arrested in the raid, which took place near the town of Vistahermosa, in the province of Meta. This follows the arrest of six rebels in Meta on Sunday. He did not rule out that the number of rebels killed might rise further, since the death toll he made public was based on a preliminary report from the ground. “The raid is ongoing,” Santos stressed. Last week, 33 rebels were killed and five arrested in a similar military operation in the northeastern Colombian province of Arauca. The rebels had themselves killed 11 soldiers in Arauca prior to that raid, but authorities said the subsequent military actions were planned beforehand and were not meant as a response to the rebel attack. FARC has been fighting the central government and other rebel groups in Colombia for more than 40 years. While they appear to have been substantially weakened in recent years, they continue to have a presence, particularly in remote jungle areas. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/Cmhu7 Tags: Clashes, Colombia, FARC, Rebels Section: Latest News, South America
