Eleven Colombian military personnel killed in plane crash

Eleven Colombian military personnel were killed on Friday when their transport plane suffered motor failure and crashed in the northern province of Cesar, killing all on board, according to a statement from the Air Force. The burned hulk of the plane was found near the town of Codazzi, about 600 kilometers northeast of Bogota near the border with Venezuela. The crash comes after President Juan Manuel Santos ordered a halt to air raids against FARC rebel camps as the government seeks to cool hostilities with the Marxist group while the two sides hammer out a peace accord to end five decades of war. Santos's decision came just days after a unilateral ceasefire by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) went into effect, providing a breakthrough in talks threatened by a recent escalation of battlefield violence. The President called the victims "heroes" in a Tweet.