Four killed in suspected Colombian rebel car bomb

BOGOTA (Reuters) - At least four people were killed and around 20 more wounded by a car bomb in the Colombian city of Cali in one of the worst urban attacks this year, authorities said on Monday.

The suspected guerrilla bomb hit the local court building in Cali, near Colombia's Pacific coast where drug traffickers transport cocaine shipments north to the United States and Mexico, officials said.

"The bomb was located near the court building ... and unfortunately four people were killed," Cali Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina told local Caracol radio.

Police said they believed FARC guerrillas were responsible for the attack.

Violence from Colombia's four-decade war has ebbed under President Alvaro Uribe, a hard-liner who has used billions of dollars in U.S. aid to send troops to drive Marxist FARC rebels back into the remote jungles and mountains.

Urban bombings are more scarce, but fighting continues in some rural areas, especially regions where coca leaf is grown to make cocaine that has helped fuel fighting.

Seven people were killed when a bomb exploded in a small town in mid August. Authorities blamed rebels who they said were retaliating against efforts to eradicate coca crops.

FARC guerrillas have been battered to their weakest in years by Uribe's U.S.-backed security campaign and several top commanders have been killed this year. But rebels remain a force in remote areas, aided by profits from drug trafficking.

(Reporting by Patrick Markey, Editing by Sandra Maler)