Heavy Fighting Reported in Northwest Colombia
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By Andrew Selsky
Associated Press Writer
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Government troops were engaged in
heavy combat Sunday against leftist rebels in the jungles of
northwest Colombia, with casualties reported high on both sides.
"We know there are a considerable number of guerrillas dead as
well as a high number of military wounded and dead," an army
spokesman, Col. Paulino Coronado, told The Associated Press.
Gen. Nestor Ramirez, second-in-command of the army, said 19
government soldiers were confirmed dead and that fighting was
continuing. RCN television said government forces had lost
contact
with 44 soldiers, and that their fate was unknown.
The government's casualty rate in just two days of combat was
extraordinary - equivalent to about 20 percent of the 97
soldiers
who were killed in the first six months of this year, according
to
Defense Ministry figures.
There were no immediate details on rebel losses.
The clashes between the army and rebels of the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia were centered around the town of
Dabeiba, located 95 miles southeast of the Panamanian border,
Coronado said.
Government troops had launched an offensive against the rebels
on Wednesday to thwart their plans to attack villages in the
region,
known as Uraba, and the fighting began in earnest on Saturday,
according to Coronado.
The government troops were supported by U.S.-made Black Hawk
attack helicopters and an AC-47 gunship, a fixed-wing plane
outfitted with .50-caliber machine guns and which during the
Vietnam War was known as "Puff the Magic Dragon."
During a battle Sept. 2, the same type of plane crashed into a
mountain, killing seven Colombian airmen.
Sunday's fighting coincided with the scheduled arrival of Lt.
Gen.
Peter Pace, the new commander of U.S. military operations in
Latin America. Pace is a veteran of the Vietnam War and of the
U.S. military mission in Somalia.
During his three-day visit to Colombia, Pace is to meet with the
armed forces commander, Gen. Fernando Tapias, and the head of
the national police, Gen. Luis Gilibert, according to a
statement
from the U.S. Embassy.
Pace, who heads the U.S. military's Miami-based Southern
Command, recently replaced Gen. Charles Wilhelm.
The training of Colombian troops by the United States is
stepping
up under a new $1.3 billion aid package, in which Green Berets
are training Colombian army anti-narcotics battalions.
The Colombian soldiers are to seize drug-producing plantations
from rebels who are protecting them, and earning millions of
dollars a week in a protection racket.
The government and the FARC are to exchange cease-fire
proposals on Friday as part of ongoing peace talks. The
proposals
are expected to widely differ, and no immediate end to the
36-year
war is in sight.
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