March 17, 1999
Web posted at: 6:06 p.m. EDT (1806 GMT)

In this story: 73 reportedly killed near Cartagena Government steps up war RELATED STORIES, SITES

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- The Colombian government claimed Wednesday that at least 50 leftist rebels were killed in an army attack on a rebel stronghold in northwest Colombia.

The attack began Tuesday in La Llorona, a canyon in the foothills of the Cordillera Occidental mountains where the FARC, Colombia's largest rebel group, maintains a compound. Fighting continued Wednesday, and military sources said more deaths were expected.

The fighting is along a highway linking Colombia's main banana-growing region, Uraba, with the country's interior. FARC and right-wing paramilitary groups have long battled for control of Uraba.

While an official statement issued in Bogota said at least 50 rebels died, a commander in the area, Col. Diego Gutierrez, said 40 to 50. He said four government soldiers had also been killed.

"The combat has been intense since" Tuesday, Gutierrez told local radio. Troops backed by air force bombers and helicopter gunships were pitted against a FARC force thought to be at least 700 strong, he said.

There was no independent confirmation of the number killed.

73 reportedly killed near Cartagena

Tuesday, the government's human rights ombudsman said 73 people had been killed during a week of clashes in a rural area south of Cartagena, Colombia's leading Caribbean resort city.

The fighting there involved FARC and a right-wing paramilitary group. Sixteen civilians were killed, along with 26 FARC rebels and 31 paramilitaries, according to the ombudsman's office.

Military sources would confirm only that 16 civilians had died.

Government steps up war

The latest attacks indicate the government may be stepping up its war against rebels, who have been battling the government for more than three decades and have de facto control over about 40 percent of the country.

Peace talks between rebel groups and the government, begun earlier this year, stalled almost immediately. And the peace process was dealt a serious blow with last week's revelation that FARC was behind the recent slayings of three U.S. humanitarian workers, whose bullet-riddled bodies were found just over the Venezuelan border.

The new offensive against the rebels has the backing of the United States and Colombia's neighbors. Peru and Ecuador have sent more troops to their northern borders under a U.S.-devised plan to contain drug traffickers. Both U.S. and Colombian officials say the rebels are involved in the drug trade.

Throughout the region, U.S. military teams are training armies. More than 470 American servicemen are in Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru, according to Steve Lucas, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command.

This month, Colombia began to overhaul its ill-equipped and poorly motivated military and create a more professional force that could move more decisively against the rebels should the peace process break down irretrievably.

Political observers believe the possibility of direct U.S. intervention in Colombia's conflict is remote. But some observers are troubled by Washington's ever-greater behind-the-scenes role.

"U.S. intervention is based on the deadly equation that they give the military technology and the weapons and we provide the dead," said Alejandro Santos, a columnist in Semana, a leading news magazine.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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