BOGOTA, Colombia — The top leader of Colombia's main rebel group, the bookish ideologue Alfonso Cano, was killed Friday in combat hours after his nearby camp was bombed, authorities said.
The death was a major victory for President Juan Manuel Santos and comes just over a year after the military killed the rebels' field marshal. It is anything but a fatal blow, however, to the nearly half-century-old peasant-based Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Cano, 63, was killed in a remote area of the southwestern state of Cauca along with four other rebels an hour before dusk about 200 yards from the bunker he apparently fled after the 8:30 a.m. (9:30 a.m. ET) bombing raid, said Adm. Roberto Garcia, the navy chief.
After government forces bombed the jungle hideout, troops rappelled down from helicopters to search the area, killing Cano in a gun battle a short time later.
He had shaven off his trademark beard and his thick glasses were not found with him, Garcia said. Officials said he was positively identified by fingerprint.
Officials did not say whether Cano, who had a $3.7-million bounty on his head, was armed when he died or how many bullet wounds he had or where. Garcia said five rebels also were captured.
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