| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Colombian Soldiers Attacked by Rebels |
| 2005-02-01 |
| BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Rebels firing homemade rockets attacked a military post in southwestern Colombia on Tuesday, killing at least 9 soldiers and wounding about 20, the navy said. Government forces in river gunboats, a "Phantom" fixed-wing gunship and helicopters were pursuing the rebels of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who attacked the Colombian marine post in Iscuande county, the navy said in a statement. The attack came amid a government offensive, called Plan Patriot, deep into the rebel's jungle hideouts in southern Colombia, more than 150 miles from the site of Tuesday's attack. Despite blows suffered by the rebels in the campaign, the attack suggested they retain the capability of striking in diverse points of this Andean nation. FARC rebels used large gas cylinders converted into rockets to attack the Marine outpost, the statement said. The outpost is located near where the Iscuande River empties into the Pacific Ocean. "Preliminary information indicates that, lamentably, nine soldiers were killed and about 20 were wounded and are being treated at a village clinic," the statement said. The troops are so-called campesino marines, or peasant marines, who are natives of the area where they are stationed and who receive three months of military training. The deployment of thousands of campesino troops in Colombia to protect their own villages and farms from the rebels is a major component of hardline President Alvaro Uribe's strategy to bring Colombia's 40-year-old insurgency to its knees. The attack occurred in Narino state, which hugs the Pacific Ocean and the Ecuadorean border and which is a major cocaine-producing center. Colombian counternarcotics troops were assisting in the pursuit of the rebels, the navy said. The United States has poured in about $3 billion in mostly military aid to Colombia since 2000 to combat the rebels, and cocaine and heroin production in Colombia, whose profits fuel the war. U.S. Special Forces have trained Colombian counternarcotics troops. |
| Posted by:Steve |