Colombian army kills 2 FARC rebels

Colombian troops have killed the commander of a FARC guerrilla unit and another rebel in an operation near the Venezuelan border, the army said Tuesday.

Elias Tabaco, the head of the FARC's Front 28, and another guerrilla fighter were killed in a "crushing blow" on Monday in a rural region of the eastern department of Arauca, the army said in a statement.

Tabaco was accused by authorities of masterminding numerous attacks in the region, and once spent nine years in prison for killing a policeman.

A female guerrilla fighter from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was captured in the operation.

Fighting in Colombia has intensified in recent weeks since the unravelling of a unilateral ceasefire declared by the FARC, which had been hailed as a sign of progress in the peace talks the rebels have been holding with the government since November 2012.

The Colombian conflict has killed more than 200,000 people and uprooted more than six million since the FARC was founded in 1964.