Guerrilla bomb kills 7 in Colombian town

BOGOTA (Reuters) - At least seven people were killed and nearly 50 wounded when Colombian guerrillas detonated a bomb in a small town as residents celebrated a festival in one of the most serious recent attacks by leftist rebels, authorities said on Friday.

Officials blamed the late-night Thursday explosion in Antioquia province on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC rebels who have been weakened by President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed security campaign.

"This is really sad as we were happy, celebrating the festivities... there were a lot of people there," Ituango town mayor Jaime Montoya told Caracol television.

Television showed army helicopters ferrying the most seriously wounded to nearby Medellin city.

Antioquia provincial Gov. Luis Alfredo Ramos said one suspected member of a local FARC front had been captured in the town after the bombing.

Violence from Colombia's conflict has waned as Uribe has sent troops to drive the FARC back into remote mountains and jungles. Rebels suffered a string of setbacks this year but remain a potent force in some rural areas, financed in part by profits from cocaine trafficking.

(Reporting by Patrick Markey, editing by Vicki Allen)