Two soldiers, civilian killed in Colombia attack

BOGOTA, Colombia, May 22 (Reuters) Two Colombian soldiers and at least one civilian were killed a week before elections when rebels attacked an army patrol escorting technicians fixing a downed electrical tower, authorities today said.

The patrol was hit by seven explosives in an ambush yesterday as it passed by a school in Cauca in the south of the country. Five other troops and two civilians were also injured in the attack, an army official said.

''At the time, they were escorting the technicians on their way to repair the pylon,'' Army Col Juan Pablo Amaya told reporters.

It was not known whether the civilian dead and injured were part of the patrol or bystanders.

Officials blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's largest left-wing rebel group, for the weekend bombing.

Colombians go to the polls on Sunday and President Alvaro Uribe is favored to win a second term. The conservative attorney and son of wealthy landowners is popular for his crackdown on the FARC and his military initiatives to reduce crime and kidnapping in urban areas.

Thousands die in Colombia's four-decade-long conflict that pits left-wing guerrillas against far-right paramilitary militias battling for control of rural land and the cocaine industry that some groups use to fund their operations.

Four soldiers were killed and eight wounded by rebel land mines on Saturday and the country's main port city was left without electricity after the guerrillas bombed power installations in more pre-election violence.

Reuters DKS DB2135