Bogota, Sep 3 (EFE).- Eleven leftist rebels were killed and another wounded Friday in a combined ground and air attack on a camp near the border with Venezuela, the Colombian military said.
The air force and troops from the army's 8th Division "carried out a precision attack on a camp of the terrorists of the Eastern War Front of the ELN," Gen. Javier Fernandez Leal told Efe by telephone from Saravena, a town in the northeastern province of Arauca.
The National Liberation Army, or ELN, base was located in a wooded area on the banks of the Bojaba River, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from Saravena.
One rebel survived the pre-dawn airstrike and was taken to a hospital in Saravena, the general said.
Troops recovered 13 rifles, two-way radios, explosives and provisions from the camp, he said.
"We still haven't ended the operation," Fernandez said, adding that Friday's attack was the fruit of intelligence work aided by information from ELN deserters.
The camp near Saravena could accommodate as many as 50 people, the army and air force said in a joint communique.
ELN units operating from the camp carried out attacks on the electric and petroleum-industry infrastructure in oil-rich Arauca, "as well as the crimes of cattle rustling and kidnapping," the statement said.
The military says the ELN has some 1,500 fighters, compared with roughly 8,000 in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the Andean nation's largest rebel group.
