Ecuador said on Friday that at least 11 military personnel who were carrying out an operation to combat illegal mining in a region near the border with Colombia were killed by dissident FARC guerrillas.
Some armed factions within FARC, once the largest guerrilla group in Latin America, have rejected its historic peace agreement made with the Colombian government in 2016.
Those splinter groups refuse to lay down their arms and pursue criminal activities like illegal drug trafficking and illegal mining.
“Eleven soldiers have been killed and one wounded,” the Ecuadoran military said in a statement.
It said that dozens of military personnel had been involved in the operation and that the “ambush” had been carried out with explosives, grenades, and firearms.
The office of the prosecutor, which earlier gave a toll of eight dead, said a criminal group called the Comandos de la Frontera was responsible for the attack in the eastern province of Orellana.
The group is involved in drug trafficking in the border region of Colombia and Ecuador.
The prosecutor’s statement added that work had begun to “recover the bodies and secure evidence” at the site of the attack.
“We will not rest until those responsible are judged before the law and are held accountable for this crime,” the military said in its statement.
Once-peaceful Ecuador averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year, as cartels battled for control over cocaine routes that pass through the nation’s ports.
The bloodshed has spooked investors and tourists alike, fuelling economic malaise and swelling the ranks of Ecuador’s poor to 28 percent of the population.
In Colombia, the Comandos de la Frontera are engaged in peace negotiations with authorities. The US is seeking the extradition of the group’s detained leader, Colombian officials have said.
