At least 12 Colombians killed by alleged rebel members

BOGOTA, Colombia -- At least 12 people, including eight civilians, were killed in attacks by suspected rebels around the country, police said Wednesday.

Alleged members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, killed five bus drivers Tuesday after stopping their vehicles, forcing out all the passengers, then lighting the buses on fire, said national police director Gen. Teodoro Campo.

The attack took place in Antioquia state on a road outside the town of San Luis, 140 miles north of Bogota.

Three other civilians traveling in cars and by motorcycle in the vicinity of the towns of Topaipi and Yacopi in Cundinamarca state were stopped and killed Tuesday by suspected FARC rebels, Campo told a news conference.

Three soldiers killed

Three soldiers were killed when alleged FARC rebels ambushed a military patrol Tuesday in Hormiga, 340 miles southwest of Bogota near the border with Ecuador. Another soldier was missing, and one other was wounded, Campo said.

An alleged FARC rebel was killed and a soldier wounded after the rebels attacked an army patrol Tuesday night in Pereira, 110 miles west of Bogota, he said.

The FARC, which operates primarily out of remote regions in Colombia's mountains and jungles, did not respond to the accusations.

Colombia is torn by a 38-year-old civil war that pits the leftist rebels against the government and a right-wing paramilitary group. About 3,500 people, mainly civilians, die in the fighting each year.