Colombian army kills 16 rebels
The Colombian army killed 16 members of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Operation Romeo in the south of the country, said an army officer Thursday.

The army received information and intercepted the FARC members in San Antonio de Getucha, southwest Caqueta, said Air Force Commander Edgar Lezmez.

Among the killed was Wilson Pena, whose alias was El Mohoso, head of Front 49 of the FARC, said the commander, adding five other FARC members were captured in the operation.

The 20,000-strong FARC is Colombia's largest insurgent organization which has been locked in a four-decade civil war, the longest in Latin America, in which government forces, leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries fight one another. The conflicts kill more than 3,000 people a year.