Colombia's FARC guerrillas suspended their unilateral ceasefire Friday after a government air strike killed 26 rebels, plunging peace talks to end the five-decade conflict into a new crisis. The December ceasefire announcement by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had raised hopes that the two-year-old peace negotiations were approaching a breakthrough. But tensions have spiralled since the rebels killed 11 soldiers in an ambush last month.
On April 15, the day after the ambush, a furious President Juan Manuel Santos ordered the military to resume air strikes against the FARC, which he had suspended on March 11 in recognition of their ceasefire. Thursday night's air strike and ground attack was the deadliest assault on the FARC since that announcement.