Colombian gunmen massacre five villagers

BOGOTA, Aug 22 (Reuters) Suspected Colombian rebels carrying a list of names killed five people in a rural village after hunting for former paramilitaries who had disarmed in a peace deal, officials said today.

Massacres and urban attacks that once plagued Colombia have become rare since President Alvaro Uribe began his US-backed crackdown on Latin America's oldest insurgency, but left-wing guerrillas remain a strong presence in more remote areas.

Gunmen arrived in Currulao during a storm-triggered blackout and went house to house looking for victims before police retook control of the village in Antioquia province, northwest of the capital, Mayor William Palacio said.

''They came in with a list, selecting people and started killing them, and when they didn't find them, they killed their wives or companions,'' Palacio told local Caracol radio.

''We have five people dead -- three women and two men.'' Police said they were investigating but local authorities said residents believed the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, was responsible for the assault.

''It is an area where the FARC have had some presence,'' Palacio said. ''People in the area said they were asking for men who had demobilized.'' Illegal paramilitary squads organized in the 1980s to counter guerrillas were responsible for some of the worst massacres and atrocities in the conflict before they disarmed under a 2003 peace accord with Uribe.

But rights groups say paramilitary commanders jailed under the deal are running criminal rings and some former fighters have regrouped. Experts say guerrillas are now pushing to reclaim influence in areas once under paramilitary control.

Helped by billions of dollars in US military and counter-narcotics aid, Uribe has sent troops and police to retake areas once the domain of armed group.

Violence has dropped sharply. But Colombia's huge cocaine trade is still intact and fueling conflict among rebels, renegade paramilitaries and traffickers fighting for control over smuggling routes.

REUTERS GT RK2235