At least 22 'leftist guerrillas' have been killed in an offensive involving aerial bombardment and ground troops near the Colombian border with Ecuador.
Defence Minister Rodrigo Rivera claimed the government had ‘dealt a serious blow’ to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels operating in the remote southern Putumayo province.
‘Up to now 22 narcoterrorists have been killed,’ Mr Rivera said in a phone call to President Juan Manuel Santos made public to local media.
President Santos in turn congratulated the military forces involved in the operation and said the rebels ‘appear like lions when we know that they are mice that use terrorism as a way to make noise’.
Mr Rivera gave no figures for military casualties in the fighting, which erupted at dawn yesterday in an area where eight police officers were killed on 10 September.
Soldiers, police and Air Force aircraft were involved in the operation, which was launched ‘entirely within Colombian territory,’ Mr Rivera said.
Ties between Ecuador and Colombia remain testy following a 1 March 2008 raid by the Colombian military on a FARC jungle rebel camp located just across the border with Ecuador.
Diplomatic ties between Quito and Bogota were not restored until November 2009.
This time, Mr Rivera said he contacted Ecuadorian Security Minister Miguel Carvajal to inform him of the operation and later thanked him for helping stop guerrillas from fleeing into Ecuador.
Officials say that guerrillas from both the FARC and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) have gone on the offensive since President Santos - who succeeded the hard-liner Alvaro Uribe -took office on 7 August.
At least 40 members of Colombia's security forces have been killed since early September in a string of attacks and ambushes.
