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Rebels kill 13 soldiers in Peru | Rebels kill 13 soldiers in Peru |
(30 minutes later) | |
Peru's Shining Path rebels have killed 13 soldiers in two ambushes in the south-east of the country, the country's defence minister says. | |
Antero Flores Araoz said the rebels had used dynamite and grenades to attack one military patrol on Thursday. | |
A captain and 11 soldiers died in that attack which left two other soldiers wounded and one is still missing. | |
It is one of the deadliest operations by the once-formidable guerrillas in the past decade. | |
Mr Flores said the incidents had taken place on Thursday, but news had been delayed by poor communications with the region. | |
"Most of the soldiers plunged over a cliff," he added, without giving further details. | "Most of the soldiers plunged over a cliff," he added, without giving further details. |
Both attacks occurred in the same area of the Ayacucho region, 550km (340 miles) south-east of the capital, Lima. | |
In the first ambush, one soldier was killed and at least three were wounded. | |
Last year, the Shining Path sprang back from relative obscurity to launch a series of deadly attacks, killing some 25 soldiers and police officers in ambushes and gun battles. | |
But the group is believed to be a fraction of its former size and is split between two cocaine-producing zones of Peru, some 500km (310 miles) apart. | |
It is made up of a few hundred guerrillas who did not lay down their arms when the group's leader, Abimael Guzman, declared the armed revolution at an end after his capture in 1992. | |
Its fighters are considered expert in guerrilla warfare from years of resistance in some of Peru's remotest and wildest country and are well-armed from the profits of the cocaine trade. |