Image copyright AFP Image caption The soldiers are said to have been on a routine mission

An ambush on a military patrol in Paraguay has left at least eight soldiers dead.

The country's interior minister said the soldiers had been on a routine mission when they were attacked with explosives and gunfire.

Francisco de Vargas said it was likely the gunmen were part of the Paraguayan People's Army (EPP).

The attack took place near the village of Arroyito, some 500km (300 miles) north of the capital, Asuncion.

Mr de Vargas said the gunmen had placed explosives in the road routinely used by the soldiers.

The EPP is estimated to number between 50 and 150 people.

The group is a Marxist-inspired rebel group which has been active in the impoverished northern region since 2008.

It is thought to have killed about 50 people but says it only targets the country's oligarchy.</s>ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — Eight soldiers were killed in an attack in Paraguay’s north by suspected members of a little-known rebels group, authorities said Saturday, just days after Colombian officials and guerrillas reached a peace deal to end the longest running insurgency in Latin America.

Paraguayan Interior Minister Francisco De Vargas reported the first five deaths from the Saturday attack in Arroyito, a town about 305 miles (490 kilometers) from Asuncion. Dr. Bernardo Jacquet, a physician at Hospital Concepcion, located some 55 miles (90 kilometers) from where the attack occurred, later said that the death toll had risen to eight.

Authorities suspect the attack was carried out by a little-known Paraguayan guerrilla group called the Paraguayan People’s Army.

Federico Delfino, the country’s prosecutor for anti-kidnapping efforts, says that the attackers got away with eight M4 carbines, bulletproof vests, and the victims’ personal belongings.

The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, on Wednesday announced the finalization of a peace agreement after more than four years of grueling negotiations in Cuba. A cease-fire in the Colombian conflict that lasted more than a half-century will take effect at midnight next Monday.

The Paraguayan government considers members of the Paraguayan People’s Army to be terrorists under an anti-terrorism law.

The Paraguayan People’s Army was blamed last year in the killing of a German couple. Their bodies were found after the rebels abducted the pair from their cattle farm and demanded that the owner of a farm pay $300,000 and give food to the poor.</s>Aug 28 (Gracenote) - Results and standings from the Paraguayan championship matches on Sunday Saturday, August 27 Guarani 1 General Diaz 0 Rubio Nu 0 Nacional A. 0 Standings P W D L F A Pts 1 Guarani 9 6 1 2 8 6 19 ------------------------- 2 Olimpia 8 5 3 0 13 4 18 3 Sol de America 7 4 1 2 14 9 13 4 Sportivo Luqueno 8 3 3 2 9 9 12 5 Libertad 8 3 2 3 10 9 11 6 Deportivo Capiata 8 3 2 3 7 12 11 7 Cerro Porteno 8 2 3 3 14 11 9 8 Rubio Nu 8 2 3 3 8 8 9 9 General Diaz 9 2 3 4 7 9 9 10 General Caballero 8 1 5 2 7 8 8 11 Nacional A. 9 1 3 5 10 16 6 12 River Plate 8 1 3 4 6 12 6 1: Copa Libertadores Next Fixtures (GMT): Sunday, August 28 Olimpia v Libertad (2110) River Plate v Cerro Porteno (2320) Monday, August 29 General Caballero v Sol de America (2230) Tuesday, August 30 Sportivo Luqueno v Deportivo Capiata (0030)</s>Paraguay says eight troops killed in ambush

ASUNCION, Aug 27 (Reuters) - An ambush in the north of Paraguay killed eight soldiers, authorities said on Saturday, adding that the attack bore the hallmarks of the guerrilla group known as the Paraguayan People's Army.

The Paraguayan People's Army, known locally by its Spanish initials EPP, is a small leftist group formed just over a decade ago.

It is loosely modeled on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which has said in recent days that it will lay down its arms after half a century of war.

The security forces who officials said were attacked on Saturday belong to a unit created by the government in 2013 to combat the EPP.

"At about 9am this morning a routine patrol was the object of an attack on a country road in the Arroyito district ... the attackers detonated explosives as the truck passed and then carried out a cowardly armed attack on the wounded soldiers," said the Interior Ministry in a statement.

The government said it is investigating the attack, which took place in a rural part of Concepcion, about 450 kilometers (280 miles) north of capital Asuncion, in an area where the EPP is known to operate.

The shadowy EPP sometimes leave pamphlets at the site of attacks. Authorities have not said if anything like that has been found.

Interior Minister Francisco de Vargas told a local radio station that the manner of the attack - explosive artifacts by a road - was typical of the EPP. "It is very probable that that is what happened," he said.

The EPP has been blamed by authorities for a string of kidnappings, murders and attacks in the remote north of Paraguay, an area of cattle ranches, poor rural laborers, and illegal marijuana plantations.

In 2013 it carried out an attack in which five people died, its bloodiest to date.

The group is believed to hold three people captive at present: a police agent who has been held for over two years, and two Mennonites, members of a religious sect of European background who have significant dairy farming communities in Paraguay.</s>ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — Five soldiers have been killed in an attack by suspected rebels in Paraguay's north, the country's interior minister said Saturday.

Interior Minister Francisco De Vargas said Saturday that the attack occurred in Arroyito, a town about 305 miles (490 kilometers) from Asuncion. He says two more soldiers were gravely wounded.

Authorities suspect that the attack was carried out by a little-known Paraguayan guerrilla group called the Paraguayan People's Army.

It comes just days after Colombia and the largest rebel group in that country reached a peace deal to end the longest running insurgency in Latin America.</s>ASUNCION: Eight Paraguayan soldiers died Saturday in a roadside explosion, the government said, blaming it on a leftist guerrilla group.

Interior Minister Francisco de Vargas said the attack occurred on a rural road near the village of Arroyito, some 500 kilometers (300 miles) north of Asuncion.

“They placed explosives in the road where a patrol routinely passes.

Because of the manner in which it was done, we believe it was an attack by the known criminal group EPP,” he said, using the Spanish acronym for the Paraguayan People’s Army.

De Vargas said eight soldiers died in the attack.

Since the guerrilla group first appeared in 2008, it has killed some 50 people in attacks, the majority of them police, soldiers and cattle raisers, according to police.

The group has been active in the cattle-raising region where Saturday’s explosion occurred.
At least eight Paraguayan Army soldiers are killed in an ambush by suspected Paraguayan People's Army (EPP) insurgents, near the village of Arroyito, in northern Paraguay.