Colombian government says top FARC commander dead

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia said on Saturday the top commander of the FARC rebel group Manuel Marulanda, known as "Sureshot," was dead.

Navy Admiral David Moreno made the announcement to reporters. Rumors about the aging rebel's death or serious illness had surfaced before, but had never been confirmed. Marulanda organized the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in the 1960s as a left-wing insurgency.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta, editing by Andrew Roche)