Colombian soldiers killed three members of a separate army unit after mistaking them for leftist guerrillas on Thursday, bringing "friendly fire" deaths to more than 20 in less than two years, the army said according to Reuters. Both groups of soldiers were hunting members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish initials FARC, when the clash took place near the mountain town of Chipaque, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Bogota, an army news release said. Since the start of last year there have been at least six friendly fire incidents in which 18 members of the country's security forces and four civilians have been killed. Popular President Alvaro Uribe, a Washington ally, has turned up pressure on the army to defeat the guerrillas during his three years in office. The army said it will investigate the incident, in which six soldiers were also wounded. Thousands are killed every year and tens of thousands more are displaced in Colombia's decades-old guerrilla war, which pits the state and illegal paramilitary groups against Marxist insurgents.
