Fighting over the weekend left nearly 70 dead. The most prominent fighting was in the southeast, where the army intervened in a feud between two AUC factions and killed about two dozen rebels. The paramilitary fighters were attacking villagers they suspected of supporting the other factions. All rebel groups use this kind of terrorism to keep local civilians in line. But the new government policy is to send in troops and police whenever such operations are detected. This has made it more difficult for rightist and leftist rebels to openly terrorize villages, towns and city neighborhoods.
Skirmishes in the north with FARC and ELN rebels left nearly thirty dead, mostly rebels.