By CESAR GARCIA
 Associated Press Writer

 BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — In their boldest attack this year, suspected leftist rebels launched a homemade mortar shell onto an army
 garrison in southern Colombia on Monday, killing 10 soldiers and wounding more than 30.

 The mortar round — a cooking gas canister packed with explosives and shrapnel — was fired before dawn from a pickup truck 600
 yards from the garrison in the town of Pitalito, Gen. Gilberto Rocha said.

 It landed on a barracks full of sleeping soldiers and started a fire that detonated several hand grenades stored inside.

 Gen. Arcesio Barrero, commander of the army's Fourth Division, said seven soldiers had serious injuries. Another 25 soldiers suffered
 minor wounds.

 Barrero blamed the attack on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the biggest rebel group in Colombia.

 Hours after the attack, relatives of the wounded soldiers waited outside the hospital in Pitalito, 235 miles southwest of Bogota, for
 word on their injuries. The hospital appealed for blood donations.

 Monday's attack was the second time in two weeks the army has suffered heavy losses at the hands of the FARC.

 Twenty-nine soldiers died Jan. 29 as they tried to seize a rebel munitions dump in southern Colombia. The cache exploded, but it was
 unclear if the explosion was accidental or set off by rebels.

 Rebel attacks on civilian and military targets have escalated in recent weeks despite a January agreement by the FARC and the
 government to seek cease-fire terms by April.

 The Bush administration has proposed expanding military assistance to this South American country, which is already receiving military
 aid to attack cocaine-producing crops controlled by the rebels and a rival paramilitary group.