Colombian Rebels Kill, Capture Policemen
Colombian rebels killed eight police officers and captured at least 30 others at a remote jungle station in what appeared to be one of the biggest blows against security forces in years, police said Sunday.
The scale of Saturday’s attack by hundreds of members of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, became clear Sunday when police and army reinforcements reached the northern rain-forest town of San Marino.
Though other attacks by the rebels in 2005 have claimed more lives, the combined toll of police killed and taken prisoner was the highest in many years.
Police and army commanders publicly said only that 30 of their men had “disappeared,” but in private, police spokesmen confirmed witness accounts and said rebels had led the missing officers into the jungle at gunpoint.
The FARC sometimes takes captives to try and swap them for guerrillas in government jails.
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