Colombian rebels attack police post, one dead

BOGOTA, Colombia, Nov 1 (Reuters) Colombian guerrillas attacked a rural police command today killing at least one officer, part of a two-week rebel offensive that has dampened hopes for eventual peace talks.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, used mortars made from gas tank cylinders in the assault, in which four more officers and several civilians were hurt, authorities said.

Government helicopters and aircraft-backed troops sent to control the town of Tierradentro in Cordoba province after FARC rebels attacked the post and damaged several houses nearby, residents and officials said.

''We have a clash with the guerrillas ... and at the moment reports of one killed and several wounded,'' Jairo Lopez, Cordoba governor's secretary told Reuters from near Tierradentro, about 235 miles (380 km) from Bogota.

Police said the assault damaged homes near the station. A local doctor told Caracol radio several civilians were also wounded.

The attack was the latest since President Alvaro Uribe pulled back from possible negotiations with the 17,000-member FARC over the release of hostages the rebels are holding, including three US contract workers captured nearly four years ago.

The FARC said last month that a hostage swap could set the stage for peace negotiations.

Uribe, who has led a US-backed crackdown to end Colombia's four-decade-old insurgency, appeared close to possible talks until he blamed the FARC for a car bomb attack at a Bogota military college two weeks ago.

Another car bomb blamed on the FARC in Villavicencio, 44 miles (70 km) from the capital, killed one soldier and a taxi driver outside an army base over the weekend.

Uribe came to office in 2002 with a hard-line promise to smash the guerrillas. Violence dropped after he sent troops to retake urban areas once controlled by rebels and demobilized illegal paramilitaries who once fought the FARC.

The area of today's Cordoba attack had been controlled by rightist paramilitaries until they surrendered in a peace deal with Uribe. The ''paras'' are responsible for some of the conflict's worst atrocities in a dirty war against the FARC.

Thousands are still killed or forced from their homes every year by conflict in Colombia's countryside. The FARC, branded drug-trafficking terrorists by Washington, say they fight for a socialist state though even mainstream left-wing politicians say the rebels have little support.

REUTERS PDM HS2259