Peru president vows probe of child's death in army operation

The death of an eight-year-old girl during a military operation against guerrillas in southern Peru "has to be investigated", President Ollanta Humala said Friday, denying that his administration tried to cover up the incident.

The probe is necessary "not only for the (child's) family, but the great family that is all Peruvians", he told reporters.

The girl died Sunday after being shot in the back during a clash between security forces and remnants of the Shining Path guerrilla group that operate in the Valley of the Apurimac and Ene rivers, or VRAE, area.

Authorities in Lima initially said the operation resulted in the rescue of three children being held by the insurgents and in the arrest of two women.

The original report made no mention of the dead child. The central government later acknowledged that one of the women taken into custody was the mother of the three "rescued" kids and the girl who died, while local officials said all four children were inside their family's home when the violence erupted.

Humala, a former army colonel, invoked his own experience in the struggle against Shining Path and other armed groups to emphasize that his administration will not repeat the abuses of the past.

"I want to state clearly that our position is different from the conditions of before, where there were operations, many times, that were hidden," the president said Friday. "We don't hide anything, we are the first to ask that this be cleared up."

His government's strategy is allowing the security forces to carry out "precise interventions, with better intelligence" that lead to the capture of rebel commanders.