Two Venezuelan military personnel were killed and 32 Colombian "insurgents" captured in fighting on the border between the two countries, Venezuela's Armed Forces said on Monday.

Venezuela's military had clashed with an armed group near the border with Colombia on Sunday.

The Armed Forces said there had been "clashes with irregular armed Colombian groups" in the southwestern Apure state, adding that a major and a lieutenant had "unfortunately died."

As well as the capture of "32 subjects," "weapons, ammunition, explosives, war supplies, vehicles and drugs were seized."

"One of the leaders known as 'El Nando' was neutralized," said the statement signed by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino.

News of the confrontation was revealed by the mayor of a Colombian border town.

"This Sunday we were awakened, we residents of Arauquita, by detonations from the Venezuelan air force" that continued through the afternoon, the mayor Etelivar Torres had told local media.

He said that the confrontation had resulted in "a significant number of injured and dead."

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro confirmed the clashes on public television but gave no further details.

A Venezuelan general living in exile told AFP the military had earlier attacked a camp of dissidents of the now disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group.

Colombia President Ivan Duque has long accused Venezuela of shielding armed rebels on its soil, a charge Maduro denies.

Last month, Duque launch a an "elite" commando unit to tackle Marxist rebels and drug-traffickers seeking refuge in Venezuela, eliciting an angry response from Maduro.

Despite the 2016 peace accord with FARC, Colombia continues to battle a multi-faceted armed conflict involving leftist guerrillas, drug-traffickers and right-wing paramilitaries competing for control of the lucrative cocaine and illegal mineral extraction markets.

Venezuela military clashes with armed group on Colombia border
Bogota (AFP) March 22, 2021 - Venezuela's military clashed Sunday with an armed group near the frontier with Colombia, the mayor of a Colombian border town said.

The confrontation, which occurred in the southwestern Venezuelan state of Apure, resulted in several casualties, said the mayor of Arauquita, Etelivar Torres.

"This Sunday we were awakened, we residents of Arauquita, by detonations from the Venezuelan air force" that continued through the afternoon, Torres told local media, adding that the confrontation had resulted in "a significant number of injured and dead."

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on his country's public television that the military had clashed with an armed group from Colombia, without giving further details.

But a Venezuelan general living in exile told AFP the military had earlier attacked a camp of dissidents of the former Colombian rebel group FARC.

In February, Colombian President Ivan Duque accused Venezuela of "protecting" remaining guerrillas.

These guerrilla dissidents have distanced themselves from Colombia's 2016 peace pact, which ended a half-century civil war and saw the FARC disarm the following year.

Maduro has said his country would "respond with force" if Colombia's new elite anti-rebel force "dared to violate the sovereignty of Venezuela."

More than nine million people have died, disappeared or been displaced due to fighting against guerrilla forces in Colombia since the 1960s.

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