Colombia's FARC rebels on Tuesday blamed the government for the execution of four hostages, claiming that a raid by security forces on a rebel camp had foiled their plan to free their captives.

In their first reaction since the bodies of the four men were found, the FARC said President Juan Manuel Santos and the military bore responsibility for the hostages' deaths and for "preventing their imminent unilateral release."

On Saturday, the leftist guerrillas executed four hostages they were holding when troops approached their jungle camp in a remote area of southern Colombia and the two sides exchanged gunfire. One of the hostages escaped.

A statement posted on a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia website claimed the group had "approved" the hostages' release before soldiers cornered and killed their top leader, Alfonso Cano, earlier this month.

According to the guerrillas, the government discovered that the rebels were about to release their hostages when they seized Cano's computers.

"It is evident that after obtaining the information, the national government and the military high command took the determination to frustrate the humanitarian gesture and its possible effects," the rebels said in the statement dated Monday.

The FARC, believed to have 8,000 members, has been at war with the government since 1964. It began a campaign of kidnappings in the mid-1980s, seizing army hostages to serve as bargaining chips for FARC prisoners.

By the late 1990s, civilians and political leaders were also being snatched, winning the group greater notoriety.