Fighters belonging to an armed nationalist group that seized a remote Peruvian police station and took officers and soldiers hostage surrendered to authorities Tuesday and freed their 17 captives, officials said.
The surrenders of the group's leader and his fighters came separately. Former army Maj. Antauro Humala turned himself in late Monday, Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said, while 94 of his fighters walked out of the station Tuesday morning, carrying white flags and placing their automatic rifles on the ground.
"Last night at 10:30 p.m. we arrested the leader of the terrorist group," Toledo said in a nationally broadcast address to the nation. "And today at 11:30 we achieved the surrender of the other 94, recovered the weapons, liberated the hostages and retook the police station, thus re-establishing public order."
Fighters supporting Humala, whose group wants to establish a nationalist indigenous movement modeled on the ancient Incan Empire, ambushed police reinforcements as they crossed a bridge Sunday, killing four officers.
