At least 34 soldiers captured in Colombia after firefights with FARC offshoot

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — Rebels from Colombia's Marxist National Liberation Army (ELN) patrol an area, in the northwestern jungles, Colombia August 31, 2017. REUTERS/Federico Rios

BOGOTA  -  At least 34 soldiers were kidnapped by armed civilians in a jungle area of southeastern Colombia after clashes that left 11 guerrillas dead, including a commander of a dissident faction of the former FARC rebel group, Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday.

The clashes occurred in a rural part of the El Retorno municipality in the southeastern province of Guaviare and involved members of the Central General Staff (EMC), a group of former FARC fighters who rejected a 2016 peace deal with the government.

Sanchez said the soldiers were taken as they were evacuating the area following a military operation that killed an EMC commander and 10 other rebels.

"This is an illegal, criminal action by people in civilian clothing," Sanchez told reporters. "This is a kidnapping."

The jungle region is considered a strategic corridor for drug trafficking and is known for its extensive coca crops, the main ingredient used to produce cocaine.

The kidnapping follows a similar incident in June, when 57 soldierswere held captive for two days in a mountainous southwestern region, another stronghold for a FARC dissident faction.

Armed groups, who fund themselves through drug trafficking, illegal mining and other crimes, remain present in Colombia after a six-decade conflict that has left over 450,000 dead, despite the peace deal with the FARC, Colombia's then-largest rebel group.

 (Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle and Sarah Morland // REUTERS)