Colombia's army shot and killed a 28-year-old British citizen during combat with Cuban-inspired rebels in the country's northwestern jungle yesterday, the army said today.
It had earlier been reported by local that the man, whose name is Jeremy Parks, was Irish. He was found with a British passport, but information on whether he was from Northern Ireland was not available.
The circumstances of Mr Parks' death and what he was doing in the area of Choco province when combat broke out with the National Liberation Army - known by the Spanish initials ELN - were not immediately clear.
The ELN kidnap hundreds of people a year but the army said it had no record of Mr Parks' abduction.
Three Irishmen were arrested on Aug. 11 and accused of training members of Colombia's biggest rebel force, the Marxist-inspired Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to build bombs and other weapons. They are being held in Bogota.
Mr Parks was killed at about 5.30 a.m. local time (10.30 a.m. Irish time), along with one member of the ELN, which is Colombia's second biggest rebel force.