Three Colombian soldiers were killed and two others wounded Monday during a clash with rebels in the country's northeastern region of Arauca, the authorities said.

The clash between government forces and rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) occurred in an area close to the Colombian border with Ecuador and after the Colombian government began a peace process last Thursday in Oslo to end more than 50 years of armed conflicts with the FARC, the largest rebel group in Colombia.

The two injured had been sent to a hospital in Arauca, local authorities said.