At least nine Colombian police officers were killed by suspected Marxist rebels who detonated a bomb as their patrol vehicle drove by, police said on Tuesday. The police were driving through mountains in the municipality of Riofrio, about 160 miles (250 km) southwest of the capital Bogota, on Monday night when the bomb exploded, police said. The 17,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's largest rebel army, is active in the area. The attack appears to be the second major FARC attack on security forces in two weeks after a long period of relative inactivity. In July, a large group of FARC rebels shot and killed 13 out of a group of heavily outnumbered soldiers who were trying to defend a bridge in the southern jungle province of Putumayo. President Alvaro Uribe, assisted by U.S. military aid, has increased defense spending and put the armed forces on the offensive, leading some analysts to suggest the guerrillas have been pushed into retreat. The guerrillas have been fighting for socialist revolution for 40 years in a conflict which claims thousands of lives a year, funding themselves by demanding money from cocaine traffickers and kidnapping for ransom.
