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Colombian rebel, paramilitary combat leaves 80 dead: msg#00503
culture.discuss.cia-drugs
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Subject: |
Colombian rebel, paramilitary combat leaves 80 dead |
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1257434
Colombian rebel, paramilitary combat
leaves 80 dead
ReutersReuters
Oct 27, 2005 — BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - About 80 right-wing
paramilitaries and Marxist rebels died in battle over lucrative
cocaine-producing land in western Colombia, a local official said on
Thursday, a day after the morning to night gunfight.
"There was combat all day, from five in the morning to nine at night.
The confrontations left 40 paramilitaries dead and an equal number of
guerrillas," Federico Cuellar, a local official in the jungle town of
San Jose del Palmar in Choco province told Reuters.
He said he got the information from fighters evacuated to the town
after the battle in an nearby area that is home to large plantations of
coca plants used in the production of cocaine.
Police and army officials confirmed there was fighting in the area but
did not provide casualty numbers.
Both the rebels, who say they are fighting a 41-year war for socialist
revolution despite very little public support, and the paramilitaries,
guilty of some of the worst human rights atrocities of the conflict,
use the Andean country's cocaine business to fund their activities.
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