Colombian pre-inauguration attacks kill 18

BOGOTA, Colombia - Fifteen soldiers were killed in a rebel ambush in northern Colombia and three more people died in other attacks on Monday, a week before President Alvaro Uribe starts his second term.

An army patrol was ambushed with explosives near the town of Tibu in North Santander province near Venezuela, killing 15 of the 18-member unit, military officials said. Rebels grow coca in that part of the country, which is used to make the cocaine that funds their four-decade-old insurrection.

Also on Monday, a bomb blast killed two soldiers in the southwest province of Narino. A remote-controlled car bomb targeting a military convoy in Bogota injured soldiers and killed a homeless man who was collecting recyclable garbage on the street.

The capital, Bogota, is on maximum alert ahead of Uribe's Aug. 7 inauguration. Four years ago, his first swearing-in was marred by rebel missile attacks that killed 21 people and injured 60.

Colombia, the world's biggest cocaine exporter, often sees an increase in violence at election and inauguration time.

The 17,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, says it is fighting for equality in a country with a wide gulf between rich and poor. But even mainstream leftist politicians say the group has scant popular support.

Uribe, whose father was killed by rebels in a botched kidnapping more than 20 years ago, is popular for his US-backed crackdown on the guerrillas. He won re-election in a 62 per cent landslide in May.

The president is credited with reducing crime, particularly in urban areas, and opening transportation routes long off- limits due to kidnappers and guerrillas. Many rural parts of the country remain under rebel control.

The southern jungle province of Caqueta was left without electricity on Monday after rebels bombed power installations, authorities said.

Analysts say the FARC was eager to show Uribe's tough security policies had not crippled its ability to make war.

"The FARC now may be operating under the assumption that they can damage Uribe's reputation with this type of high- profile attack and show that his security policies are not as successful as people have been led to believe," said Francisco Leal, a political analyst at Bogota's University of the Andes.

- REUTERS