At least four Shining Path rebels and two Peruvian government soldiers were killed in a shootout in the Andes province of Huancavelica, some 500 kilometres southeast of the capital Lima.

In a radio interview, Defence Minister Rafael Rey said the army was attempting to arrest a Shining Path rebel leader when the fighting broke out.
 

In the 1980s, the Maoist Shining Path rebel movement launched its guerrilla war against the Peruvian government. The organisation is regarded as a terrorist organisation by Peru Peru, the United States and the European Union. The rebels were largely wiped out in the 1990s and have since abandoned their war against the state to smuggle drugs.