CARACAS (AFP) - An armed group killed six Venezuelan Army troops and an engineer in an ambush along the Colombian border, Defense Minister Jorge Garcia Carneiro revealed.
The ambush took place Friday between the towns of La Victoria and La Charca in Apure state, the minister said in a statement Saturday.
Garcia Carneiro did not say who was suspected in the ambush, referring only to "irregular groups." In the past, there have been clashes in the area with Colombian leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers.
The troops killed were protecting a team of engineers with the Venezuelan state oil giant PDVSA who were carrying out inspections related to the Guafita oilfield in Apure, Garcia Carneiro said.
The defense chief said Venezuela would pull out all the stops in intelligence gathering "to find these terrorists."
The slain engineer was identified as 23-year-old Ana Laura Carrasco, he said.
Another engineer and another soldier were injured in the incident and were being treated at a military hospital in the Andean city of San Cristobal, officials said.