Epifanio Espiritu, a leader of the armed rebel movement Shining Path, was killed Tuesday in a clash with police in the central province of Huanuco, Peru's Interior Minister Luis Alva said.

Epifanio Espiritu, a leader of the armed rebel movement Shining Path, was killed Tuesday in a clash with police in the central province of Huanuco, Peru's Interior Minister Luis Alva said.

Special forces officers from the Peruvian National Police (PNP)clashed with rebels at 3:00 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) in Cerro Azul, a town some 450 km northeast of Peru's capital Lima.

Speaking to reporters as he prepared to leave for the area, Alva said that the raid, part of the government's anti-rebel Operation Lightening, had also captured eight rebels, including a woman, and nine long-distance rifles. Two of the rebels were injured in the crackdown.

Espiritu, also known by the alias JL, is considered to be the deputy to Comrade Artemio, the Path's last active leader, whose real name is unknown.

"We are very close to Artemio and we cannot forget that JL was one of his hands," said Alva, adding that the rebels were linked to groups which carried out two attacks in the south Andes: one hitting Ocobamba police station in Apurimac province and another ambushing a police patrol in Tayacaja, of Huancavelica province.

Alva said that as part of the same operation, the PNP would setup three bases to fight the rebels: one in the Apurimac and Ene rivers region and two more in the High Huallaga region.

"We are trying to solve the problems and the police are achieving their goals. Peru should be proud that the PNP is fulfilling its promises," Alva said.

Remnants of the Shining Path, a rebel group that led a bloody rebellion until its supreme leader, Abimael Guzman, was captured in 1992, have largely abandoned their ideological struggle in recent years and gone to work for drug traffickers in Peru, the world's second-largest cocaine producer.

Suspected Shining Path rebels have killed 14 anti-narcotics workers since President Alan Garcia took office in July 2006, apparently in protest at government drug raids.

Earlier this month, Garcia extended a state of emergency, allowing police and the military to intensify raids in some coca-growing regions.