A Colombian soldier died this weekend while serving in the Spanish army in Afghanistan, Spain’s ministry of defense confirmed Monday.
Niyireth Pineda Marin and 5 other soldiers were conducting a reconnaissance patrol in northern Afghanistan when their armored vehicle hit an improvised explosive device. Marin and Sgt. Manuel Argudin Perrino were killed instantly. Three injured soldiers, one of whom is a Bogota native, were flown to nearby medical facilities and are still hospitalized, reported RCN Monday.
Marin was born in the city of Pereira in the Risaralda department. A single mother of a 12-year-old boy, she worked as a schoolteacher before she moved to the Canary Islands with her son.
Her body will be taken to a ceremony in the Canary Islands before it is moved to the city of Pereira, the hometown where Marin’s family and friends are mourning their loss.
Nuridia Pineda Marin, who is also a soldier in the Spanish army, told one news source that her sister was a “happy, outgoing girl” who “loved her job.”