Colombia halts air raids on FARC in major boost to peace drive

Colombia will stop air raids on Marxist FARC rebels for a month, President Juan Manuel Santos said Tuesday, a major stride in a peace process aimed at ending Latin America's longest-running civil war.
      
Peace talks have been underway since 2012 but the president's gesture was an unprecedented step towards ending the conflict, which has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced more than five million.        

"To start the de-escalation of the conflict I have decided to order the minister of defense and armed forces commanders to stop bombing raids on FARC camps for a month," Santos said in a television address.
      
The FARC declared an indefinite, unilateral ceasefire on December 18, but Santos had until now rejected a bilateral ceasefire without a definitive peace deal.
      
Air raids are the government forces' main strategy for taking out the guerrillas.
      
"As far as the FARC's unilateral ceasefire... one has to acknowledge that they have been complying," Santos said. He added that once the month suspension of bombing missions was up, the military would make an assessment on how to move forward.
      
"We certainly are not going to give up bombing raids if we perceive an imminent threat," Santos said. "If in the course of our patrolling, carrying our routine military control of an area, confrontations take place, those are the rules of the game."       

The Colombian conflict has killed 220,000 people since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was launched in 1964.
      
The peace talks in Havana, which began in November 2012, have produced partial accords on several issues, but have yet to yield a final deal.
      
On Saturday, Colombia's...