Troopers doused with gasoline, set on hearth throughout mission to destroy cocaine lab, Colombia military says

[ad_1] Two Colombian troopers have been critically 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 came about throughout which a "group of civilians attacked the uniformed officers with hearth to impede the process," the army 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 prison 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 post 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.

𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐍 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐑 𝐕𝐈𝐕𝐎𝐒 𝐀 𝐃𝐎𝐒 𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐒, 𝐄𝐍 𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐙Ó𝐍, 𝐏𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐘𝐎

Condenamos y repudiamos el demencial intento de quemar vivos a dos de nuestros militares del @COL_EJERCITO , quienes se encontraban… pic.twitter.com/aas2Xb2o27

— Pedro Arnulfo Sanchez S. Orgullosamente Colombiano (@PedroSanchezCol) September 4, 2025

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 called Arana, throughout a gathering with authorities representatives in February.

He faces costs associated to current cocaine shipments to america 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 Might.

In July, a military dog in Colombia was wounded after detecting a bomb planted by guerrilla fighters that exploded throughout a army operation. The Colombian army blamed the explosion on ELN, a bunch 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 harm was introduced simply two days after a bomb strapped to a donkey exploded in the identical space, killing one soldier and wounding two others.