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US calls for immediate release of hostages by Colombian rebels

By Xinhua

Washington : The US has urged the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to free immediately all the hostages, including the five Americans that are in its captivity.

“Today marks the fifth anniversary of the kidnapping of Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes, and Keith Stansell by the FARC,” State Department spokesman Scott McCormack said Wednesday.

“The US calls on the FARC to immediately release all the hostages so that they could return safely to their families,” he said.

Washington “firmly supports the Colombian government in its efforts to release the hostages from the FARC, some of whom have now been held for ten years”, he added. The US has designated the FARC as a foreign terrorist organisation.

The FARC, Colombia’s largest leftist insurgency group, has been accused of drug trafficking and for holding around 750 people as hostages in its jungle hideouts. The FARC has been fighting the government since the 1960s.