engaged rebels in a gun battle. The government said Monday troops were attempting to locate the captives, not launch a rescue. ?They were tortured by more than a decade of captivity and then murdered,? President Juan Manuel Santos said after the killings became public. ?It's an atrocious crime.? Erazo eventually hid in a tree trunk, listening as the soldiers fought his captors. He crawled out when he heard chain-saws clearing trees for helicopters to land. His companions had been pushed face down and shot in the back of the head, said a captured rebel. Another was shot twice in the back as he tried to escape. The FARC, which still hold 11 military captives, had marched them through the jungle for weeks, Erazo said. ?Sometimes they were awfu, at other times they were in a good mood and freed us from the chains. Sometimes we were chained from six at night until six in the morning,? he told Colombia's Caracol radio station. Santos said last week Colombia was nearing the final phase of nearly five decades of war and that he would be willing to talk peace if the FARC were serious and put down their weapons. The rebels, considered a terrorist group by the United States and Europe, have refused. The FARC, which calls itself ?the people's army? defending peasant rights, has battled about a dozen administrations since first appearing in 1964, when its founder Manuel Marulanda and 48 rebels fought off thousands of troops in jungle hide-outs.