-Caveat Lector-
At least 28 dead in Colombia clashes
Violence comes 4 days after rebels freeze peace talks
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOGOTA, Colombia, Nov. 18 - Colombia's insurgents killed unarmed townspeople
and clashed with soldiers Saturday in widespread violence that reportedly
left at least 28 people dead. Also, a bomb packed onto a motorcycle exploded
in a town in the heart of Colombia's cocaine-producing region Saturday,
killing one person and wounding 18, including six police officers.
THE BLOODSHED CAME four days after the nation's largest rebel group,
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, froze peace talks with
the government aimed at ending the 36-year conflict that claims some 3,000
lives a year.
The bomb exploded in downtown Puerto Asis, located in Putumayo
province which has been blockaded by rebels for two months. There was no
immediate claim of responsibility.
Jacqueline Castaneda, a director of the Puerto Asis hospital, told
journalists that six of the wounded were in serious condition.
FARC has clamped a road blockade on Putumayo to protest President
Andres Pastrana's U.S.-backed plan to use army troops to seize lucrative
cocaine crops and eradicate them.
The rebels, and a rival right-wing paramilitary group, "tax" the
cocaine producers and protect the harvests, earning millions of dollars.
U.S. BACKED PLAN
U.S. special forces troops have been training three Colombian army
battalions that in coming weeks will be attempting to wrest control of the
coca plantations from the insurgents. Washington is also supplying dozens of
combat helicopters for the operation as part of a dlrs 1.3 billion aid
package.
On Saturday morning in the eastern state of Antioquia, 50 FARC
fighters searching for an escaped kidnap victim killed four people in the
town of Florida after they refused to reveal the location of the fleeing
hostage, said army Maj. Sergio Perez. The fate of the escaped kidnap victim,
who was not identified, was not clear.
The army also alleges that FARC combatants were responsible for
killing between 10 and 15 people inside a farmhouse Saturday morning in the
Antioquian town of Frontino, 215 miles from Bogota. Army Maj. Oscar Anzola
said the rebels apparently believed the victims were collaborators of a
rival right-wing paramilitary group.
Some 50 paramilitary fighters, meanwhile, killed five people in the
northern state of Cesar after accusing them of siding with rebels, national
radio reported. The army and local police could not immediately confirm the
attack, which allegedly occurred in the town of La Loma, 335 miles from the
capital Bogota.
A BLOODY YEAR
Armed insurgents have killed nearly 1,400 civilians from January to
August this year alone, according to human rights monitors.
. Colombia's narco-terrorism has the U.S. and the region on edge. Click
here for an interactive look.
Combat between rebels and government troops intensified in western
Colombia.
Seeking to retake territory in the western state of Risaralda,
soldiers on Friday began attacking FARC fighters in the town of Pueblo Rico,
160 miles from the capital Bogota. Six rebels and two soldiers have died in
the ongoing clashes, said army spokesman Luis Hernandez.
And in clashes with troops in the southern state of Narino on Friday,
fighters from the smaller National Liberation Army, or ELN, killed a
lower-ranking officer and injured three soldiers. The fighting ended
Saturday morning, Hernandez said.
© 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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