Colombia Says Top FARC Commander Killed In Combat

Reyes was one of the seven members of the secretariat of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

A leading commander of the Colombian rebel group FARC, Raul Reyes, was killed in combat in a southern province along the frontier with Ecuador, the government said on Saturday.

Reyes was one of the seven members of the secretariat of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Latin America's oldest surviving left-wing insurgency, which U.S. and European officials label a terrorist group.

The death of one of its top commanders is the most serious blow to the FARC under the government of President Alvaro Uribe, who has received billions of dollars in U.S. aid to fight the rebels and cocaine traffickers.

"This is the most important strike yet delivered against this terrorist group," Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told reporters in a news conference.

Violence from Colombia's conflict has ebbed under Uribe, who has sent troops to retake areas under the control of armed groups. But the FARC is still potent in remote areas, where it is holding scores of hostages including three U.S. contract workers and French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.