Six FARC Rebels Killed by Colombian Forces

Six guerrilla fighters with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were killed in an operation launched jointly by police and the military, officials said Friday.

The men died Thursday when government forces bombarded their rural encampment in the central state of Meta.

Authorities also confiscated a cache of weapons, including several rifles and grenades and about 70 antipersonnel mines.

The operation was carried out even as the FARC and the Colombian government engage in peace talks in Cuba that seek to bring an end to a half century of civil war.

The conflict has killed 220,000 people and caused more than five million others to flee their homes since the 1960s.

The peace talks have so far produced deals on land reform, political participation for the rebels and fighting the drug trafficking that has fueled the conflict.

Still to be resolved are reparations for victims and the mechanism by which the final peace agreement is to be adopted.

The FARC is Colombia's largest and oldest insurgency, with some 8,000 fighters under arms.