Colombia bombs 'guerrilla bases'

Nearly 1,000 workers have been removing coca plants in the park

Colombia has launched bombing raids on a nature reserve where a coca eradication programme has come under repeated attack by left-wing rebels.

The air force said it had bombed several rebel bases inside La Macarena.

On Wednesday, suspected Farc rebels killed six police officers involved in an operation to destroy illegal coca leaf plantations in the area.

The government says rebels conceal drug production inside nature reserves where they are safe from aerial fumigation.

Heavy losses

It is not known whether any rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia were killed in the bombings.

President Alvaro Uribe had said La Macarena - which is 170km (100 miles) south of the capital, Bogota - would be evacuated before the air strikes were launched.

Nearly 1,000 labourers have been removing coca plants by hand there, because aerial spraying is banned in national parks.

Earlier this year, the Colombian government sent some 2,000 troops, along with 1,500 police officers, to La Macarena to protect the workers.

Left-wing Farc rebels have attacked the area on a number of occasions, killing dozens of police officers and soldiers.

Last year, guerrillas killed 29 soldiers working to destroy coca near the park, in some of the heaviest losses suffered by Mr Uribe's administration.

The Colombian president has vowed to wipe out coca - used in the production of cocaine - in the region.

The illegal drugs trade is a key source of funding for the insurgent group.