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[NOTE: What happened? The
leftist guerrillas were
attacking the stronghold of death-squad leader Carlos Castano, when the military --which has strong links to the death squads-- inserted itself into the fighting by repelling the rebel attack! Hmmm! -DG] ============================= Ramirez said some 50 soldiers dispatched to the area were attacked by 200 guerrillas. ______________________ ============================= AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Thursday, 24 June 1999 Colombian army retakes Cordoba area after fierce fighting ------------------------------ BOGOTA -- Colombia's army regained control of the department of Cordoba after fierce fighting with leftist guerrillas that left some 65 people dead, top military officials said Thursday. Armed Forces commander, General Fernando Tapias, and Army chief General Jorge Mora told journalists 35 soldiers, whose bodies were sent home Thursday, and 30 rebels had died in the fighting. The army's second-in-command, General Nestor Ramirez, told the press the high number of casalties was the result of a failure in the army's strategy to retake the area, some 900 kilometers (558 miles) north of the capital. Ramirez said some 50 soldiers dispatched to the area were attacked by 200 guerrillas. Violence broked out last Friday between three different leftist and rightist guerrillas groups. The army stepped in on Tuesday to take control of the area. The war between the government and the country's three major guerrilla organizations killed a total of 3,051 Colombians in 1998, according to a statement by one human rights group here. Published in the daily El Tiempo de Bogota, the statement said 1,545 of those killed died in combat in 630 different clashes. The Observers of Human Rights group also said "torture by state agents" was on the rise, and documented 1,949 incidents of human rights abuses. Civilians were being increasingly affected by the three-decade long war, and at least 507 civilians were killed between December 1998 and April 1999, while another 555 had been kidnapped, the statement said. The marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has waged an almost 40-year war against the government, was joined in the latest clashes by rival leftist guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN). Both rebel groups have also waged bloody battles against rightist paramilitaries belonging to the Self-Defense Units of Colombia (AUC). Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse |
