Colombian army kills 13 FARC fighters

Colombian troops killed at least 13 members of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in an air raid, a senior air force commander said Tuesday.

The raid on early Monday targeted a rebel outpost in a rural area of Chigorodo in northwestern Antioquia state, killing seven men and six women from the FARC's Fifth Front, said Gen. Hugo Acosta, the operative commander of the Colombian Air Force.

President Juan Manuel Santos also revealed the anti-guerrilla operation via Twitter, saying "a total of 13 guerrilla members died in the operation against the FARC's Fifth Front in Chirogodo (Antioquia)."

The FARC said in a statement that one of its prominent women guerrilla members was among the injured in the raid.

The government and the leftist FARC rebels had been holding peace talks in Cuba since Nov 19 in a new bid to end their five-decade armed conflict. The talks, which were suspended for the Christmas and New Year holidays, are to resume on Jan 14.

Before the talks started, the rebels declared a unilateral two-month ceasefire lasting until Jan 20 as a goodwill gesture and called on the government to follow suit.

Santos, however, refused, insisting that the government would continue to fight the rebels until a definitive peace agreement is in place.