An official in Peru says Shining Path rebels have killed one soldier and injured two others in an attack on a helicopter in a jungle area southeast of the capital, Lima.

Defense Minister Antero Flores said Monday that the rebels carried out the attack a day earlier in the region of Vizcatan.  He said rebels opened fire on the supply helicopter, killing one of the soldiers defending it.

In November, suspected Shining Path rebels killed at least four policemen in a jungle attack.  In October, the rebels staged one of their deadliest attacks in recent years when they killed 19 people, including seven civilians, in an ambush in the southern Huancavelica province.

The Maoist Shining Path started its brutal insurgency in 1980, eventually killing tens of thousands of people. Violence declined sharply after the capture and conviction of their leader in 1992, but the rebels continue to carry out smaller attacks.

The attacks occur primarily in remote areas used to produce coca, the raw material in cocaine. 

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.