BOGOTA – Troops seized a large guerrilla arsenal in the southern Colombian province of Caqueta that held 237,691 rounds of ammunition, 123 landmines and 1,000 kilos (2,202 pounds) of explosives, the army said.

The arms were located by Joint Taskforce Omega troops conducting counterinsurgency operations in a rural area near Cartagena del Chaira, a jungle town in Caqueta, the army said.

The arsenal, which apparently belonged to the Southern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was located thanks to a tip from demobilized members of the guerrilla group.

Soldiers also found 20 mortar rounds, 1,000 detonators, 2,500 meters (2,735 yards) of detonating cord, 214 ammunition clips for rifles and two tons of provisions.

Troops did not engage any guerrillas or make any arrests in the operation, the army said.

The FARC, Colombia’s oldest and largest leftist guerrilla group, was founded in 1964, has an estimated 8,000 to 17,000 fighters and operates across a large swath of this Andean nation.

President Alvaro Uribe’s administration has made fighting the FARC a top priority and has obtained billions in U.S. aid for counterinsurgency operations.

The FARC, whose leader is Alfonso Cano, suffered a series of blows last year.

On July 2, 2008, the Colombian army rescued former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, U.S. military contractors Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves, and 11 Colombian police officers and soldiers.

The FARC had been trying to trade the 15 captives, along with 25 other “exchangeables,” for hundreds of jailed guerrillas.

The rebels’ most valuable bargaining chip was Betancourt, a dual Colombian-French citizen the FARC seized in February 2002 whose plight became a cause celebre in Europe.

FARC founder Manuel Marulanda, who was known as “Sureshot,” died on March 26, 2008.

Three weeks earlier, Colombian forces staged a cross-border raid into Ecuador, killing FARC second-in-command Raul Reyes and setting off a regional diplomatic crisis.

Ivan Rios, a high-level FARC commander, was killed that same month by one of his own men, who cut off the guerrilla leader’s hand and presented it to army troops, along with identification documents, as proof that the rebel chief was dead.

A succession of governments have battled Colombia’s leftist insurgent groups since the mid-1960s.

In 1999, then-President Andres Pastrana allowed the creation of a Switzerland-sized “neutral” zone in the jungles of southern Colombia for peace talks with the FARC.

After several years of fitful and ultimately fruitless negotiations, Pastrana ordered the armed forces to retake the region in early 2002. But while the arrangement lasted, the FARC enjoyed free rein within the zone.

The FARC is on both the U.S. and EU lists of terrorist groups. Drug trafficking, extortion and kidnapping-for-ransom are the FARC’s main means of financing its operations. EFE