BOGOTA, Colombia?Soldiers on Sunday captured eight paramilitary fighters suspected of killing at least 24 peasants in a village in southwestern Colombia, the army said.

The suspected members of the outlaw militia known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, were caught in a raid in the province of Valle del Cauca, near where the Oct. 10 massacre of the peasants took place.

The villagers were removed from buses and homes and then shot in the head in the village of Buga. The right-wing AUC regularly kills peasants it suspects of aiding leftist guerrillas.

The massacre was one of several blamed on the AUC that have left nearly 60 people dead in the past week.

The men were captured in the village of Darien, 186 miles southwest of the capital, Bogota army spokesman Capt. Jorge Florez said.