Huge cache of rebels' explosives seized in Colombia

Bogota, Jan 4 (IANS) The Colombian Army has seized a huge cache of explosives belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in southwestern part of the country, EFE reported.

Soldiers have found 432 grenades of different types in a FARC hideout in Paez Belalcazar City in Cauca province, the army said in a statement Sunday.

'These (grenades) were dangerous war material and could have been used against the civilian population and troops in the area,' it said.

Founded in 1964, the FARC is Colombia's largest leftist guerrilla group with an estimated 17,000 fighters that operates across a vast swath of this Andean nation.

President Alvaro Uribe's administration has made fighting the FARC a top priority and has obtained billions of dollars in US aid for counterinsurgency operations.

Last year on July 2, the Colombian army had rescued former presidential candidate and French-Colombian citizen Ingrid Betancourt along with three US military contractors and 11 security officials from FARC's captivity.

The US and the European Union have put FARC on its lists of foreign terrorist organisations.