Colombian army frees 57 soldiers held captive by locals

Fifty-seven soldiers who had been held captive by locals in the mountains of Colombia since the weekend have been freed in a military operation, the Colombian defence minister has said.

The minister, Pedro Sánchez, said that not a single shot had been fired in what he dubbed “Operation Justice”.

The soldiers were seized in the Cauca region, a stronghold of the EMC rebel group, which engages in cocaine production and trafficking.

Mr Sánchez blamed the EMC for what he described as the soldiers’ “kidnapping”, saying that the locals who had seized them had been ordered to do so by the rebels.

The Colombian military said the incident had been triggered by the arrest of a suspected EMC rebel on Saturday.

Read more: BBC News