BOGOTA, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Eight Colombian soldiers were killed on Wednesday in a rebel land mine attack, one of the biggest death tolls the security forces have suffered this year in their war against drug-running guerrillas, the army said.

The outlawed Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has suffered a string of military setbacks this year under pressure from a U.S.-backed security push. But the 44-year-old rebel group still controls some rural areas.

The soldiers were killed while on patrol in the Pacific coast province of Narino, where the FARC and former members of right-wing paramilitary militias produce and export cocaine destined for the United States.

Hundreds of Colombians are killed or maimed every year by land mines planted to protect coca plantations used to produce the drug and camps where the guerrillas hold kidnap victims.

Violence in urban areas and on the highways has been cut under President Alvaro Uribe, the White House's staunchest ally in South America. But rights groups say an increasing number of farmers and their families are being forced from their homes by cocaine-related violence. (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; editing by David Wiessler)

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