7 Colombian police killed in rebel ambush

Colombian officials say rebels have killed at least seven members of a police counterinsurgency unit in an ambush in the country's southwest.

Colombian officials say rebels have killed at least seven members of a police counterinsurgency unit in an ambush in the country's southwest.

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The regional police commander, Gen Gustavo Ricaurte, tells The Associated Press that two policemen were wounded. He says the patrol was returning on foot and in an SUV when they were attacked on Monday afternoon.

Ricaurte says the patrol was engaged in combat over the weekend with a column of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Since taking office in 2002, President Alvaro Uribe has seriously weakened the Western Hemisphere's last rebel army. But the FARC remains lethal. According to the Defense Ministry, it has killed at least 187 soldiers and police this year.