CARACAS, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela's defense minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez said on Monday that nine people were arrested following an ambush against a military unit which left three soldiers dead.
Another 10 soldiers were injured during the attack which occurred on Sunday in the state of Amazonas, some 710 kilometers south of Caracas, close to the border with Colombia.
"The armed forces have been viciously attacked, cowardly, by armed paramilitary groups who pretend to operate on our territory," Padrino Lopez said during a press conference.
"They have killed three of our National Bolivarian Armed Forces colleagues," he added.
He reported that one of the nine arrested was identified as Colombian Luis Felipe Ortega Bernal, who is under blue notice of Interpol.
"These groups... have trespassed onto the Venezuelan territory and have taken the lives of three valiant men who were performing their duty," Padrino Lopez said.
"We reject the presence of any armed group from wherever they may be," he said.
