Colombian army kills seven guerrillas amid rising tension

The Colombian military has killed seven leftist guerrillas and captured an eighth in an operation near the Venezuelan border, President Juan Manuel Santos said Saturday amid a sharpening conflict with the country's second-largest guerrilla group.

Santos said the guerrillas belonged to the National Liberation Army (ELN), which has been in preliminary discussions for two years with the government about joining formal peace talks.

Tensions have risen sharply, however, since February 3 when the group captured a Colombian soldier.

"If they want to begin some kind of public conversation, they have to free those two kidnapped people they are holding," Santos said, referring to the captured soldier and a civilian who has been in rebel hands since 2014.

http://news.yahoo.com/colombian-army-kills-seven-guerrillas-amid-rising-tension-211819175.html