World Briefs

BOGOTA, Colombia – President Alvaro Uribe's government on Wednesday fired 25 soldiers, including three generals and four colonels, over the killings of at least 11 civilians who disappeared from a Bogota suburb and were found dead hundreds of miles away.

Uribe said an internal military probe determined that the cashiered soldiers were guilty at least of negligence that included permitting "the collusion of members of the army with criminals" in "the murder of innocents."

The purge was the biggest shakeup in years in Colombia's armed forces over human rights abuses and comes as rights groups complain of a rise in killings of noncombatants to boost body counts of leftist rebels.

Armed forces chief Gen. Freddy Padilla read out the names of the fired soldiers at a news conference with Uribe and Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos at his side.