Ten Colombian soldiers killed in rural bomb attack

BOGOTA, May 10 (Reuters) At least ten Colombian soldiers were killed today when leftist guerrillas exploded a bomb as the army patrolled a rural area in the southwest of the country, military officials said.

Local army commander Gen Hernando Perez told the local Caracol radio station that country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, had carried out the attack in Valle del Cauca province.

Two officers and eight soldiers were killed in the attack, an army spokesman said.

The ambush was the second major attack on Colombia's security forces this week. Nine police officers were killed in a FARC bomb ambush yesterday in Santander province in the north of the country while on a counter-narcotics operation.

REUTERS DS RAI1820 eut 12:39 05-10-07