Soldiers doused with gas, set on fire during mission to destroy cocaine lab

[ad_1] Two Colombian troopers have been severely injured after being doused with gasoline and set on fireplace 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 occurred throughout which a "group of civilians attacked the uniformed officers with fireplace 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 turn 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 towards 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 called Arana, throughout a gathering with authorities representatives in February.

He faces prices associated to current cocaine shipments to the US and his extradition is being sought.

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

In July, a army canine 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 gaggle of roughly 6,000 fighters that's combating 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.