Colombia says it kills FARC commander in Ecuador

By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's military said on Saturday its troops had killed a top rebel commander in an attack on a jungle camp across the border in Ecuador in a severe blow to Latin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency.

Raul Reyes, one of seven members of the secretariat of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was killed in an operation that included air strikes and fighting with rebels across the border, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said.

Reyes was considered by analysts to be the No. 2 FARC commander and is the most senior member of the group to be killed in President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed campaign against the guerrillas fighting a more than four-decade-old conflict.

"We have taken another step toward defeating the celebrity of bloody terrorism, which 50 years ago was ideological, but today is a terrorism of mercenaries and drug traffickers," Uribe said in a national television broadcast.

In the operation, 17 rebels were killed, including Reyes, whose real name was Luis Edgar Devia Silva, along with senior guerrilla Guillermo Torres, Santos said.

Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper published on its Web site a photograph of what it said was Reyes' bloodied corpse in a stained white shirt lying on a black body bag.

Violence from Colombia's conflict has ebbed under Uribe, who has sent troops to drive back the rebels. But the FARC is still potent in remote areas, where it holds scores of hostages, including three Americans and French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.

Santos said intelligence had revealed Reyes' movements near the border. After an air strike by the Colombian military, Colombian troops came under fire from guerrillas in Ecuadorean territory and they responded. Reyes' body was brought back into Colombia to prevent rebels taking it away, he said.