Ten killed in rebel bomb attack

Two officers and eight soldiers have died after rebels detonated a bomb on a rural road in Columbia, military officials said.

Local army commander Gen. Hernando Perez said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were to blame for the attack in Valle del Cauca province, 143 miles (230 km) southwest of Bogota.

A further ten soldiers were slightly wounded in the attack against a military convoy, an army spokesman said.

The ambush, described as one of the worst this year, came a day after nine police officers were killed by a bomb in Santander province.

They were on an operation to eradicate the coca leaf used to make cocaine. Authorities say the FARC was also responsible for that attack.

Violence from Colombia's four-decade rebellion has dropped sharply since President Alvaro Uribe began a US-backed offensive to push the guerrillas back into the jungles, and to also disarm the illegal paramilitary squadrons who once fought them.

But the FARC, which started as a peasant army in the 1960s, is still a major force in rural regions.

The rebels often employ explosives and land mines to ambush military patrols in the remote areas.

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