Five soldiers were killed and seven wounded in a clash with suspected Shining Path Maoist guerrillas, Peru's military said Thursday.

The attack occurred in a mountainous jungle region rife with coca production, where guerillas operate in alliance with drug-trafficking groups. Peru considers the rebels "narcoterrorists."

The Wednesday evening attack took place while military patrols "were making nightly rounds near an anti-terrorism base" in the eastern region of Junin, Lima said.

The military and police "have intensified operations in the area to capture terrorists involved in the drug trade," the statement adds.

On Sunday, an army sergeant was killed in a clash with Shining Path rebels near the town of Mazangaro, in the same area.

Some 70,000 people were killed between 1980 and 2000 as the government battled the Shining Path and a rival leftist guerrilla group, the Tupac Amaru movement, according to Peru's independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The Shining Path suffered a crippling blow when its founder and leader, Abimael Guzman, was captured in 1992. Authorities soon discovered other group leaders, and the remaining fighters fled into the jungle where they survived as hired guns for drug traffickers.

The government is still battling the Shining Path faction active in the remote Apurimac and Ene River valley area.