LIMA (Reuters):

Seven suspected guerrillas were killed by Peru's army in a remote area of the Andes where remnants of the Shining Path insurgency guard the coca plantations of drugs bosses, officials said yesterday.

The shootout on Tuesday near Ayacucho, the birthplace of the Shining Path about 360 miles (580 km) southeast of Lima, occurred two months after Peruvian police captured 20 alleged holdouts of the Maoist group in regions that produce coca, which can be refined into cocaine. The army said none of its men was wounded and that it seized pistols and automatic rifles.

Members of the Shining Path, which led a bloody rebellion that killed thousands of civilians until its leadership collapsed in the early 1990s, have in recent years become involved in drug runnings.

The Shining Path nearly disappeared after its leader, Abimael Guzman, who once taught philosophy to university students, was arrested in 1992 and later jailed.

Officials say the Shining Path has a few small but active groups split between Peru's two main coca growing areas, one in the Huallaga valley in the north and the other in south-central Peru.

Colombia, Peru and Bolivia have vast regions where coca, a traditional crop in the Andes, is grown.