BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) --Leftist rebels killed two truck drivers who refused to stop at
an illegal roadblock on a major highway in central Colombia, police said Wednesday.

Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, set up the
roadblock Tuesday afternoon to rob those traveling on the highway connecting
Bogota, the capital, to Medellin, Colombia's second-largest city, police said.

The rebels started shooting when the truck drivers sped past them, wounding five
other civilians whose vehicles had been detained at the roadblock.

The highway, one of the country's most important, had not seen a single attack in
more than a year, due to a massive deployment of government troops to protect
the route.

Police officers and army troops were immediately dispatched to the area of the
attack, outside the town of Cocorna, and were still pursuing the rebels on
Wednesday, police said.

Though the hardline government of President Alvaro Uribe has been steadily
retaking control of the nation's thoroughfares, rebels still frequently set up
blockades on patches of rural roads and highways to rob and kidnap travelers in
various parts of the country.

Also Wednesday, police announced the capture of six right-wing paramilitary
fighters allegedly planning to kill a group of former rebels undergoing
rehabilitation in the central Colombian town of Chia, just outside Bogota.

Police were alerted to the plan by Chia residents who said they overhead the
suspects at a local restaurant plotting to kill the ex-rebels, who are currently
participating in a government reinsertion program after being given an amnesty.

Police followed the suspects to a nearby house frequented by the former rebels
and arrested them as they were allegedly readying to sneak in.

"They were planning an ambush," police Col. Jose Leon told reporters. "As soon
as (the guerrillas) arrived at the house, they planned to kill them, then steal
everything in the house to make it look like a robbery."

Police said the suspects are members of the Bloque Capital, part of Colombia's
umbrella paramilitary group, which is currently holding peace talks with the
government. The paramilitary group has repeatedly broken its cease-fire
agreement since it was declared in December 2002.

Five of the suspects already had pending arrest warrants for armed robbery and
illegal transport of arms, police said.

Colombia's civil war pits the rebels against the government and paramilitary
forces in a 40-year-old civil war. About 3,500 people, mainly civilians, die in the
fighting each year.

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.