Colombian rebels admit massacre

In a rare confession, a right-wing Colombian paramilitary army has admitted responsibility for a wave of recent bloodletting, including the killings of two congressmen and 24 unarmed peasants.

The paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, or AUC, acknowledged that innocent civilians were accidentally killed in the attacks but insisted that it did not deserve the ‘‘beating’’ it was enduring from the army, which captured 18 paramilitary members in raids over the weekend.