Colombia Warfare Kills at Least 10

Clashes between Colombian rebels and paramilitary forces near the Panamanian border killed at least 10 fighters last weekend, and there were reports that as many as 200 civilians died, officials said Thursday.

The leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, attacked an area largely controlled by the right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as the AUC, said Ricardo Victoria, mayor of the northwestern town of Riosucio.

He said civilians who fled the village of Cano Seco reported that 150 to 200 people were killed in the fighting Saturday. Some said they saw bodies in marshes and floating in rivers, he said.

Gen. Fernando Tapias, the chief of Colombia’s armed forces, said his troops were moving into the area Thursday. “We know there are dead on each side, but we won’t have any exact figures until we see the evidence,” he said.

There were no immediate reports of civilian deaths, but several of the roughly 250 displaced people who have arrived in Riosucio had shrapnel wounds, Victoria said in a telephone interview.

A regional police commander, Col. Jorge Pinto, said 10 people were confirmed dead, all apparently members of the AUC. Pinto spoke by the phone from Apartado, the largest town in the area.

The contested jungle region is strategic, its labyrinth of rivers used by the warring sides to smuggle weapons into Colombia from Panama.

Colombia’s 37-year-old civil war pits the FARC and another leftist rebel group against the outlawed AUC and the military, which has the backing of the United States.