Colombia confirms one Ecuadorian among dead in cross-border raid

Americas News

Mar 24, 2008, 3:46 GMT

Bogota - Colombia on Sunday confirmed that an Ecuadorian was among the more than 20 killed in a cross-border airstrike against leftist Colombian rebels in Ecuador, an admission that is likely to further strain already tense relations between the two countries. Ecuadorean Army members are seen in Puerto Nuevo village, province of Sucumbios, Ecuadorean border with Colombia, 18 March 2008. Colombia on Sunday confirmed that an Ecuadorian was among the more than 20 killed in a cross-border airstrike against leftist Colombian rebels in Ecuador. EPA/JOSE JACOME

Ecuadorean Army members are seen in Puerto Nuevo village, province of Sucumbios, Ecuadorean border with Colombia, 18 March 2008. Colombia on Sunday confirmed that an Ecuadorian was among the more than 20 killed in a cross-border airstrike against leftist Colombian rebels in Ecuador. EPA/JOSE JACOMEDefence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said one of the bodies brought back to Bogota after the March 1 attack had been identified as an Ecuadorian citizen, but warned Ecuador not to take any drastic action as a result. 'I have told President (Rafael) Correa and the Ecuadorian authorities to keep a watchful eye and to not be robbed of their good faith by a few criminals,' Santos told reporters in Bogota. The controversial strike, which targeted Raul Reyes, the second- in-command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), prompted a serious crisis in relations between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. Both countries mobilized troops along their borders with Colombia and broke diplomatic ties, but the tensions appeared to have eased in the last two weeks amid reconciliatory moves from all sides at a summit in Rio de Janeiro and in talks at the Organization of American States in Washington. But Ecuador's President Rafael Correa warned Saturday that the crisis could be reopened if it was confirmed that an Ecuadorian was indeed among the dead in the strike. Santos again defended Colombia's attack as 'legitimate acts of war, legitimate acts in defence of democracy.' Colombian commandos entered Ecuador's territory after the initial airstrike and retrieved the bodies of Reyes and another man initially identified as a FARC member known as Julian Conrado. Forensic examinations had now revealed the second man to be an Ecuadorian, Santos said.

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juhaMar 24th, 2008 - 14:18:36

with Equidor hiding elements of armed forces in its own country and allowing them freeflow across the border...seems to be the act of war and not the persueing army of the columbian forces....yeesh.

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