Seven Colombia soldiers die fighting FARC rebels

A handout picture provided by the International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) showing the president of the ICRC, Peter Maurer, travelling in a boat during his visit to Putumayo Department, southwest of Colombia. Maurer is on a four-day visit to Colombia in the midst of preparations to participate in the process of the FARC releasing of three kidnapped Colombian military men.

AFP/BogotaAt least seven soldiers were killed on Wednesday in clashes with suspected FARC guerrillas in southern Colombia, in some of the worst fighting since peace talks resumed between the government and the rebels.The army said that five soldiers were injured in the attack, adding that it launched the assault on FARC-controlled territory in San Antonio de Getucha, in Caqueta province.“We launched an operation deep in (FARC’s) southern block with a goal of protecting our civilian population,” the army said in a statement.It added that intelligence sources indicated the FARC suffered an “undetermined number of dead and injured” in the fighting.Earlier this week, the government and the leftist rebels had reported progress on the key issue of land redistribution in their peace talks to end Latin America’s oldest insurgency.But the reported progress comes amid renewed battles between the two sides, after rebels ended a self-imposed moratorium on fighting last month.Since the Marxist guerrillas lifted their unilateral ceasefire on January 20, they have increased attacks on civilian and military targets, taken hostages and blown up oil and energy infrastructure in a bid to force the government to suspend hostilities.On Tuesday, suspected FARC guerrillas killed a police officer and a boy and wounded 27 other people, many of them children, in a grenade and gunfire attack in the southern province of Guaviare.Meanwhile, a non-governmental delegation set out yesterday to an undisclosed location in Colombia to recover two officers captured by leftist rebels who have pledged to free them.The capture of the two men and of a soldier in separate operations has caused tension in peace talks with the government.The delegation is made up of representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and an NGO called Colombians for Peace.The FARC rebels had said it would only turn the captives over to these two organisations.The delegation left from the southwestern city of Cali for an area where the army has suspended military operations to aid the handover, and said it expected to return around midday with the police officers. They were captured on January 25 and the soldier five days later. The soldier is expected to be released tomorrow.The peace talks began November 19 in Cuba and are now in recess.They aim to end an insurgency that has been active for nearly 50 years, making it Latin America’s oldest.