FARC bomb attack kills 3, key ELN leader netted by police
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) launched a bomb attack in the southwest of the country, killing at least one policeman and two civilians, said the authorities on Friday.

The guerrilla group attacked several police vehicles on the road linking Pasto, capital of the southwestern department Narino, with the Tumaco port along the Pacific coast.

Eleven law enforcement personnel were also injured in the assault which came before Vice President Francisco Santos visited Tumaco.

In anther development, the Colombian police said Friday they have captured a major leader of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Manizales, capital of the central-west department Caldas.

The guerrilla chief is Jose Luis Mejia Ramirez, alias Byron. Heis one of the leaders of the ELN "Carlos Alirio Buitrago" which has carried out numerous attacks and kidnappings on a road linking Bogota and Medellin, the second most important city of the South American country.

It is the second blow to the ELN this week after its international commission member Jose del Carmen Borda Torres, alias Raul, was arrested in Medellin.

The ELN, with 4,500 combatants, is Colombia's second biggest anti-government organization behind the FARC with at least 17,000 fighters.

Also on Friday, a community's indigenous leader was released by suspected members of the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia after being kidnapped for two days, said the Indigenous Organization of Antioquia.

The kidnapped was Midiades Bailarin, governor of the Chontadural-Calero community of the Mutata municipality, some 800 km northwest of Bogota.