BOGOTA, Colombia 

Colombia’s Air Force has killed nine dissident militants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who did not accept the 2016 peace treaty, the Defense Ministry said Monday. 

The ministry said in a written statement that an airstrike was carried out on the first and seventh fronts of the FARC militants in rural areas of the Guaviare administrative district.

About 800 FARC members are assumed to be in the district of Guaviare, according to the statement.

Militants, who still control coca cultivation and the cocaine trade, abducted a United Nations employee in the region last year.

Reporting by Lokman Ilhanby; Writing by Sadık Kedir Abdu