24 Villagers Killed in Colombia
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Leftist guerrillas rampaged through a cluster of villages in northern Colombia over the weekend and killed at least 24 residents, hacking many of them to death with machetes and burning down homes, local officials said Thursday.
Officials said the death toll was tentative, and based on accounts from family members of the victims who fled the massacre zone in Corboda state.
Cordoba's governor's office and the mayor of Tierralta, the nearest large town, blamed the Sunday and Monday attacks against three nearby villages on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
Villagers said the victims were peasants intercepted by the rebels while out looking for firewood and food in the mountains. The region is also base for cultivating coca, the raw material for cocaine.
The FARC, Colombia's largest guerrilla band, is fighting a 37-year war for control over territory dedicated to the lucrative drug crops. Rebels and rightist paramilitary forces have been battling for months in the Tierralta region.
