At least 19 leftist rebels and two soldiers were killed in combat in three different parts of Colombia on Saturday, and a small town mayor was murdered, the police and army said.
It was a worse-than-average day of violence in the war-torn country, where President Andres Pastrana is betting on peace talks with the two main leftist rebel groups to end a 37-year old conflict which claimed 40,000 lives in the past decade.
Eight FARC guerrillas and one soldier were killed in clashes with military patrols carrying out "Operation Hurricane" in mountains in the northeastern province of Santander, the army said.
Military patrols overran and destroyed seven camps built by the 17,000-member FARC -- the Spanish initials for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Soldiers killed six guerrillas from a smaller rebel force, the Cuban-inspired ELN, in a firefight outside the town of Falan in the central Colombian province of Tolima. One soldier was also killed, the army said.
Guerrillas from the ELN, or National Liberation Army, had kidnapped seven civilians and were spiriting them away into nearby mountains when they were intercepted by the army. The hostages were freed.
The ELN and the FARC, which say they are fighting to end extreme inequality and to construct a socialist state, earn much of their money by demanding ransom for kidnap victims. Colombia had almost 4,000 kidnappings in 2000 -- by far the highest total in the world.
Another five FARC rebels were killed by the army in a mountain region of the northwestern province of Antioquia.
Two armed men killed the mayor of the town of Gonzalez, in Cesar province near the border with Venezuela, along with his driver, the police said -- BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters)
