Colombian soldiers have killed 39 rebels, mostly in a bombardment of a guerrilla camp, the defense minister said Wednesday. The military bombed a rebel camp in northeastern Arauca state early Wednesday, killing 33, Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon told a Bogota news conference. Other rebels were killed in the past two days in operations in Arauca and other parts of the country, he added. Pinzon described the bombing of the rebel camp as the biggest blow against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the past five years. The bombardment in Arauca, near Colombia's border with Venezuela, came in the same region where 11 government soldiers were killed Saturday in an attack blamed on the FARC. "A great blow to the FARC in Arauca, where they killed our soldiers," Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said in a statement congratulating the military.