Three Colombian guerillas injured during a controversial Saturday operation were sent by Ecuador's troops to a military base on Sunday.
The three, all women, were taken to the Grupo Rayo 24 base in Lago Agrio, 180 km from Ecuadorian capital Quito. Ecuador's Defense Minister Wellington Sandoval led an Ecuadorian government delegation to the area where 15 bodies of fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were found.
Ecuador withdrew its ambassador to Colombia on Sunday, saying the Colombian operation had trespassed in Ecuadorian territory to attack the FARC. Seventeen rebels were reportedly killed in the cross-border attack.
The women rebels were not identified and were under strict police and military guard. One of them arrived aboard a Gazelle helicopter covered by a military jacket without shoes. The other two arrived aboard another helicopter, on improvised stretchers.
Since Saturday, Ecuadorian military officials were at the attack site, a rebel camp in Angostura, 250 km northeast of Quito and more than two km from the Colombian border.
Ecuadorian military authorities said that the Colombian army took away two bodies: that of Luis Edgar Navia Silva, the FARC's spokesman and second in command, better known by his alias Raul Reyes; and Guillermo Enrique Torres, a FARC commander better known as Julian Conrado.
Ecuador's President, Rafael Correa, said in a Sunday statement that "there was no hot pursuit. The guerrillas were attacked as they were sleeping."
Ecuador's version of events contradicted that of Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe, who denied violating Ecuadorian sovereignty and said that Colombian forces had acted in what officials called "legitimate self defense."
The incident has heightened diplomatic tensions with Venezuela, Colombia's neighbor on the east, which closed its embassy in Colombia and moved troops to its border with Colombia.
Source: Xinhua
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