Peru's Shining Path rebels kidnap gas workers

LIMA (Reuters) - Shining Path rebels took between 10 and 20 workers hostage near Peru's natural gas fields on Monday, sources in the military and a major gas company said.

The kidnapped workers are employees of Skanska, which services Peru's main natural gas pipeline, the sources said. It was the first large kidnapping by the rebels since 2003.

"Shining Path rebels took them hostage early this morning in the village of Kepashiato. They took them from the hotel where they were sleeping. We don't know where they were taken," an official from Peru's gas pipeline company said.

The leftist insurgency has not posed a risk to the stability of the government since its Maoist founders were captured in the early 1990s during a civil war. The rebels are deeply involved in the drug trade in the world's top cocaine exporter.

The army caught one leader of the remnant band of rebels in February and President Ollanta Humala, a former military officer, has vowed to stamp out the rest of the group soon.

Owners of the pipeline company that carries gas from Peru's Camisea gas fields include Argentina's Pluspetrol, U.S.-based Hunt Oil, South Korea's SK Energy and Suez-Tractebel, among others.

(Additional reporting Omar Mariluz; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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