Soldiers sprayed with petrol, set fire during the mission to destroy the cocaine laboratory, known as the army of Colombia
Two Colombian soldiers were seriously injured after being sprayed with gas and set fire to an anti-drug operation was attacked in southeast Colombia, the army announced on Wednesday.
The incident occurred during an operation to destroy a cocaine Laboratory in a rural area of the North Department of Putamayo, which borders the equator.
A riot took place during which a “group of civilians attacked the officers in uniform with a fire to hinder the procedure,” the army said in a statement on Wednesday.
An officer and a soldier suffered serious burns and received treatment in a hospital.
Such civilian attacks on security forces in distant and guerrillaic areas have become increasingly frequent in Colombia.
The Latin American country is grappling with its worst security crisis in a decade, fueled by criminal groups benefiting from drug trafficking, extortion and illegal exploitation.
The army promised an action against the Comandos of Frontera, a dissident faction which rejected the 2016 peace agreement between the government and the stuffed guerrilla group, accusing them of orchestrating the attack and “forcing” the civilian population in the region.
The Minister of Defense, Pedro Sanchez, said in a position on social networks that the authors “are neither peasants nor communities claiming their rights”.
“These are criminals and narcos who tried to kill our soldiers.”
Sanchez has published a video of one of the victims transported by helicopter to receive medical care.
The border command group, which operates in Colombia and Ecuador, is currently in peace negotiation with the government of the left president Gustavo Petro, but with little progress.
Colombian prosecutors arrested Andres Rojas, the group’s leader who is also known as Araba, during a meeting with government representatives in February.
He faces charges related to recent cocaine expeditions to the United States and his extradition is sought.
The Ecuadorian authorities blamed the group for killing 11 soldiers during an attack during an operation against illegal mining in May.
In July, a Military dog in Colombia was injured after detecting a bomb planted by guerrilla hunters who exploded during a military operation. The Colombian army blamed the explosion in Eln, a group of around 6,000 fighters who fight the Colombian government. Peace talks with the group – which the United States has appointed as a foreign terrorist organization – were suspended in January, when Eln was blamed For dozens of deaths in the raids near the border with Venezuela.
The dog’s injury was announced just two days after a bomb attached to a donkey exploded in the same area, killing a soldier and injuring two others.
