By Xinhua
Bogota : Colombia’s second largest leftist rebel group the National Liberation Army (ELN) has freed nine hostages and turned them over to the International Red Cross, local officials said.
The ELN handed over the hostages, seven male truck drivers kidnapped Jan 2 and two women whose identities were not known, in a rural area of Samaniego in southwestern province of Narino, provincial Governor Antonio Navarro said, adding that all the hostages were in good health.
The ELN, with some 4,500 armed cadres, is Colombia’s second largest guerrilla group after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which controls large areas in the eastern part of the country.
The ELN has held several rounds of peace talks with the government from December 2005 in the Cuban capital Havana.
Bogota has asked the ELN to end kidnapping and release all hostages it held, estimated at more than 400.