Bogota - Fierce fighting erupted in the mountains on the edge of Bogota yesterday, with reports of "heavy casualties" as hundreds of Marxist rebels prepared to stage a spectacular attack on the capital, the army said.
The clashes broke out at dawn between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and counterinsurgency troops around the Andean village of Gutierrez, just 15 miles south of Bogota.
The battle is the latest in a surge of rebel attacks that have come during ongoing peace talks between the government and the FARC.