Troopers doused with fuel, set on hearth throughout mission to destroy cocaine lab

[ad_1] Two Colombian troopers have been severely injured after being doused with gasoline and set on hearth when an anti-drug operation was attacked in southeastern Colombia, the military stated Wednesday.

The incident occurred throughout an operation to destroy a cocaine laboratory in a rural space of the northern Putumayo division, which borders Ecuador.

A riot befell throughout which a "group of civilians attacked the uniformed officers with hearth to impede the process," the navy stated in a press release Wednesday.

An officer and a soldier suffered extreme burns and have been receiving remedy in a hospital.

Such assaults by civilians on safety forces in distant, guerrilla-controlled areas have change into more and more frequent in Colombia.

The Latin American nation is grappling with its worst safety disaster in a decade, fueled by legal teams benefiting from drug trafficking, extortion and unlawful mining.

The military vowed motion in opposition to the Comandos de Frontera, a dissident faction that rejected the 2016 peace accord between the federal government and the FARC guerrilla group, accusing them of orchestrating the assault and "coercing" the civilian inhabitants within the space.

Protection Minister Pedro Sanchez stated in a put up on social media that the perpetrators "are neither peasants nor communities claiming their rights."

"They're criminals and narcos who tried to homicide our troopers."

Sanchez posted video of 1 oft the victims being transported by helicopter to obtain medical care.

The Border Command group, which operates in each Colombia and Ecuador, is presently in peace negotiations with leftist President Gustavo Petro's authorities, however with little progress.

Colombian prosecutors arrested Andres Rojas, the group's chief who's also referred to as Arana, throughout a gathering with authorities representatives in February.

He faces costs associated to latest cocaine shipments to the USA and his extradition is being sought.

Ecuadoran authorities blamed the group for killing 11 troopers in an assault throughout an operation in opposition to unlawful mining in Could.

In July, a navy canine in Colombia was wounded after detecting a bomb planted by guerrilla fighters that exploded throughout a navy operation. The Colombian navy blamed the explosion on ELN, a gaggle of roughly 6,000 fighters that's preventing Colombia's authorities. Peace talks with the group — which the U.S. has designated as a international terrorist group — have been suspended in January, when the ELN was blamed for dozens of deaths in raids close to the border with Venezuela.

The canine's damage was introduced simply two days after a bomb strapped to a donkey exploded in the identical space, killing one soldier and wounding two others.