Colombian forces kill FARC dissident leader

Colombian forces have killed FARC dissident leader Nestor Vera and nine other rebels in a raid in the country's southwest, the defence minister said on Friday.

The operation "allowed us to neutralise nine individuals on the FARC dissident frontline as well as... Ivan Mordisco," minister Diego Molano told reporters, using Vera's nom de guerre.

"The last major leader of the FARC has fallen," Molano added, and described this as the "final blow" to the renegade movement.

Hundreds of dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have continued fighting after their comrades lay down arms under a 2016 peace accord that ended more than half a century of armed conflict.

Vera, one of Colombia's most wanted men, recently took command of a group of some 2,000 dissidents, the so-called Armando Rios front, after the presumed death of leader "Gentil Duarte" in fighting with a drug gang in neighbouring Venezuela in May, according to Colombian intelligence.

A reward of $700,000 had been on offer for information on Vera's whereabouts.

Some 500 soldiers were deployed in the Colombian jungle several weeks ago on a mission to find Vera, according to General Luis Fernando Navarro.

Vera and his comrades were ultimately killed in an air force-led operation on July 8.