Rebel guerrillas kill two soldiers in east Colombia

Two Colombian soldiers were killed Sunday in an attack allegedly conducted by rebels of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in the eastern Norte del Santander Department, El Tiempo daily reported.

The two soldiers, Jefersson Beltran Tapiero and Norberto Bautista Velandia, were attacked by rebels with improvised explosive devices when they were patrolling the Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline, the largest in Colombia.

The attack happened on the same day the ELN, the country's second-largest guerrilla group after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, expressed their willingness to enter a public phase of peace talks with the government. Endi