Informant38

Colombian assault troops and police backed by tanks and helicopter gunships laid siege Wednesday to an impoverished neighborhood in Medell�n, the South American nation�s second largest city.
The operation, the biggest counterinsurgency campaign to be waged in a crowded urban area in recent years, was launched on the direct order of Colombia�s new right-wing president, Alvaro Uribe.
At least 14 people were killed in the first day of fighting, including a 16-year-old boy. Scores were wounded, most of them old people, women and children.
Medell�n�s mayor, Luis P�rez, said Uribe had instructed the army to continue the operation until it secures full control of the district, known as Comuna 13, which is home to some 130,000 of Medell�n�s 2.5 million people. General Mario Montoya, the army commander in the Medell�n area, said that his forces intended to carry out house-to-house searches in a hunt for weapons.