Kidnapped journalist team killed in Ecuador

Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno today confirmed the deaths of three members of a journalist team kidnapped by renegade Colombian rebels -- and launched a retaliatory military operation in the area where they were snatched.

The three men were kidnapped on March 26 while covering a story on violence along the border with Colombia, where Ecuadoran forces have been battling Colombian guerrillas engaged in drug trafficking.

Announcing their deaths after the expiry of a tense 12-hour deadline for the kidnappers to prove the trio was still alive -- or face a "forceful" response -- Morales said he had ordered an operation in the area involving crack troops from the police and the army.

"Sadly, we have information confirming the murder of our fellow countrymen," he told reporters in Quito, two hours after the ultimatum expired, warning the kidnappers of a forceful response if they didn't comply.

"We have resumed ... military and police operations in the strip of land by the border where they were previously suspended and I am immediately sending in a deployment of elite units from the army and the police," he said.

A visibly emotional Moreno had issued the deadline late on Thursday after his government received photos from a Colombian TV station suggesting the team were dead.

Cutting short a trip to Lima where he had been due to attend the Americas summit, which begins on Friday, he hunkered down with his cabinet to handle the crisis.

But as the deadline passed, there was no immediate news on the fate of the team -- reporter Javier Ortega, 32, photographer Paul Rivas, 45, and their driver Efrain Segarra, 60 -- all of whom worked for the influential El Comercio newspaper.

"It appears that criminals never wanted to hand them back safe and sound, it's very likely... that the only thing they wanted was to gain time," Morales said of the kidnappers, guerrillas formerly affiliated with Colombia's now-disbanded FARC rebels. The murders drew a swift condemnation from Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who slammed "a deplorable act."