The defense ministry said 400 soldiers were deployed Wednesday to the Yapacana reserve to dismantle some 500 structures used in illegal gold mining and to evict the trespassers.

During the operation, "a group of miners attacked officials with knives and guns," the ministry said in a statement.

"This irresponsible action resulted in two deaths" of civilians. Another three were injured as were three soldiers, it added.

The reserve is Venezuela's biggest, stretching over some 320,000 hectares (790,737 acres) of the southern Amazonas state on the border with Colombia.

Authorities say the illegal miners fell and burn trees, contaminate water and engage in underground drilling that is damaging to the environment and harmful to Indigenous communities who call the reserve home.

In July, President Nicolas Maduro ordered the deployment of the armed forces to counter a scourge he said was "destroying the Amazon of South America... and Venezuela."

Since then, the military had removed some 12,000 illegal gold miners from the Yapacana reserve, said General Domingo Hernandez Larez, in charge of the operation.

The environmental NGO SOS Orinoco said that in August 2023 there were about 23 illegal mines affecting 3,316 hectares (8,194 acres) of the Yapacana Park.\

Colombian authorities on Wednesday reported four injured miners -- two Venezuelans and a Colombian -- arriving at a hospital in Inirida across the border from Yapacana.

About 41 miners were arrested during the operation, military sources told AFP.

Human rights activists have denounced "excessive use of force" during evictions of illegal mines, where foreigners from Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador also operate.