Ecuador: Noboa's Government deploys some 1,500 military personnel against the FARC
The Ecuadorian Government has deployed Special Forces, Intelligence Units and Counterterrorist Units in order to locate the guerrillas who murdered 11 Ecuadorian military personnel.
Deployment of troops from the Jungle Brigade.
On Monday, Ecuador deployed more than 1.500 military personnel in the Amazon to track down dissidents belonging to Colombia's FARC guerrillas who killed 11 uniformed men during an operation against illegal mining, the defense ministry has said.
"We are going all out! This war against the bad guys will intensify," the ministry said on social network X, referring to the deployment of Special Forces, Intelligence Units, and Counterterrorism Units to reinforce Jungle Brigade No. 19, which is tasked with locating and neutralizing FARC fighters.
Rebels from the group Comandos de la Frontera, who are negotiating a peace agreement with the Colombian government of Gustavo Petro, ambushed an army squadron on Friday that "was attacked with rifles, grenades and explosives."
The Ecuadorian government declared the 11 deceased soldiers as national heroes and offered a reward for those who deliver any information on those responsible.
"For the love of those we are mourning today, for the families who are already missing, this fact is undoubtedly a reminder for all of us: we are at war" said National Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo in a speech addressed for the families of the deceased servicemen.
Ecuadorean soldiers killed by FARC
Some 80 Ecuadorean military personnel were carrying out an operation against illegal mining in different parts of the jungle when "a combat team was ambushed by the Colombian rebel group Comandos de la Frontera," the Ecuadorean Army said in a bulletin.
The attack comes amid an increase in violence in both countries as a result of the growing trafficking of cocaine produced in Colombia and exported through Ecuadorian ports to the United States and Europe, reported AFP.
"These facts mourn the entire region and evidence, once again, the threat posed by organized armed groups. Their criminal violence is inadmissible and must be confronted with the full force of the state," Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote in X.
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