President Alvaro Uribe flew to the battlefields of southwest Colombia to oversee a massive counterattack against leftist rebels on Sunday, a day after 25 soldiers were killed in attacks across the country that shattered notions the insurgents were nearing defeat. More than 1,000 troops backed by helicopter gunships hunted down several hundred rebels believed to be heading for the nearby border with Ecuador to seek refuge from the fighting, army officials said, according to AP. Uribe insisted that his government won't retreat from the decision to defeat the rebels. «Terrorism is an obstacle to democracy,» Uribe said in brief remarks to reporters before traveling to Puerto Asis, 530 kilometers (330 miles) southwest of Bogota. As many as 300 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, on Saturday attacked oil wells near Puerto Asis and ambushed an army convoy, killing at least 19 soldiers. Rebel casualty figures were not known. Another 19 soldiers who went missing during the combat were found alive early Sunday, said Acting Army chief Gen. Hernan Alonso Ortiz. «We are fed up that insurgents cross over from Ecuador to commit crimes in our lands,» Coral told reporters. For years, FARC guerrillas and have slipped across the 640-kilometer (400-mile) border into Ecuador's northern jungle region to seek refuge from battle and to buy supplies.
