The FARC rebel front accused of killing 12 Colombian soldiers Monday is stationed in Venezuela and moves easily between the two countries, Colombia’s minister of defense said Tuesday.

The guerrilla unit probably has been using Venezuela as “its home base for quite a while,” Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said in an interview with Caracol Radio.

The FARC, Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, allegedly ambushed the army’s First Brigade while it patrolled an area in the northern department of Guajira near the Venezuelan border. Twelve uniformed soldiers died in the attack and at least four more were wounded.

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Shining Path rebels on Friday killed three members of Peru’s security forces and wounded two others while they were searching for police who disappeared in an earlier ambush, the armed forces said.

It was the latest setback to the government’s push to retake a lawless bundle of jungle valleys in southeastern Peru where a remnant band of Maoist rebels runs cocaine trafficking in the world’s most densely planted region of coca plantations.

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In the face of aggression from the United States or Israel, Iran will attack to defend itself, Iran’s most powerful figure, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday.

“We do not have nuclear weapons and we will not build them but in the face of aggression from the enemies, whether from America or the Zionist regime, to defend ourselves we will attack on the same level as the enemies attack us,” Khamenei said live on television.

“Americans are making a grave mistake if they think by making threats they will destroy the Iranian nation,” he said in his annual speech to mark Nowruz, the Iranian New Year.

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The Colombian army said Saturday that FARC rebels have killed 11 soldiers in a guerrilla attack in the northest of the country.

The attack took place in Arauquita, a municipality bordering Venezuela.

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Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC announced Sunday to release all ten captive members of the security forces and will abandon kidnapping civilians for extortion purposes.

The announcement was made in a statement published on the website of Anncol, a leftist news organization with alleged ties to the rebel group.

The FARC announced “our decision to add the remaining four to the announced decision to release six prisoners of war” and that “from today on we ban the practice” of “the retention of people … in order to finance our struggle.”

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