At Least 10 FARC Rebels Killed in Colombia, Army Says

At least 10 guerrillas from Colombia's leftist FARC rebel group were killed in a clash with the military, Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon told reporters Thursday.

"It was a very significant blow" to the rebel group, Pinzon said, adding that one of the victims was Pedron Lain Parra, a regional commander who was a key confidant of Jorge Briceno, the FARC's military chief who was killed in 2010.

The army offensive in the country's southeast took place Sunday, in a difficult to access, mountainous area of the Meta province, one of the regions where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC, operate.

The soldiers seized rifles, machine guns and communications equipment from the site of the clash, Pinzon said.

Colombia has endured five decades of conflict that has left hundreds of thousands dead and displaced more than 4.5 million.

The FARC -- Colombia's largest and oldest rebel group, which was established in 1964 -- has 7,000 to 8,000 fighters.

For the past year, it has been engaged in peace talks with the government, and as a gesture of goodwill, the rebel group declared a unilateral ceasefire on December 15.

The government has so far resisted any reciprocal ceasefire until a permanent deal is brokered, saying such a move would give FARC a strategic advantage.

And according to the defense ministry, the FARC has already violated its ceasefire with an attack Monday on a police helicopter in the north of the country that left two injured.