Colombian military kills 14 FARC rebels

The Colombian Army confirmed Monday the deaths of 14 members of the guerilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) during a military operation in a rural area in the country's eastern department of Arauca. The operation began in the early morning of Sunday with air and land attacks. Besides the deaths, one rebel fighter was captured and another turned himself in, according to military sources cited by local media. The bodies of the guerrilla fighters were taken to the Rafael Navas Pardo military base and will later be transferred to Tame's Forensic Center in Arauca, authorities said. Leonardo Barrero, the Army Chief General, told reporters it was possible that a rebel leader known as "Franklin" was among the dead. "We are verifying the information with the Investigative Police to find out whether he escaped to Venezuela," said Barrero. The Colombian government, currently engaged in peace talks with the FARC in Havana, Cuba, to end the decades-old conflict, has recently intensified the military offensive against the rebels.