FARC Combatants Kill 12 Colombian Soldiers

Combatants from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

FARC rebels kill 12 Colombian soldiers, wound 4

Tue May 22, 2012 3:21AM GMT
presstv.ir

Twelve Colombian army troops have been killed and four more wounded in an ambush by rebel group FARC in the county’s north, a security official says.

The attack took place on Monday in La Majayura, a rural area bordering Venezuela, said Yusti Maria Lopez, a security official in Maicao, the capital of the department of La Guajira.

"Unfortunately we have received reports of 12 soldiers dead and four wounded," Lopez said.

"Regional and national officials are drawing up a toll. We aren't ruling out that there were guerrilla dead too, but that's being analyzed by the army," he added.

The FARC, the country's largest rebel force, has increased attacks on Colombian security forces in remote parts of the country over the past year.

In April, four security officials, three soldiers and one police officer were killed in an ambush by the group in the department of Caquet in the south.

The rebel organization has an estimated 9,200 fighters operating in the mountainous and jungle areas of the country.