2 NPA rebels killed in new clashes in Mindanao

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 27, 2010) - Government troops killed two communist rebels in a clash Sunday in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Officials said soldiers also overran a rebel camp and recovered four improvised explosives following the fighting in Davao Oriental’s Cateel town. One soldier was wounded in the firefight, said Captain Emmanuel Garcia, a spokesman for the Army’s 10th Infantry Division.

He said troops clashed with about 50 New People’s Army rebels in the village of Aliwagwag after military forces raided the camp. He said troops also recovered six automatic rifles.

“Troops overran the encampment with 40 wooden bunkers and recovered four improvised explosive devices, four M-16 assault rifles and two carbine rifles,” he Garcia said.

The raid, he said, was part of an operation aimed at rescuing a soldier - Staff Sergeant Bienvenido Arguilles, of the 25th Infantry Battalion, and a government militia, Job Latiban – who are being held by rebels, but there were no signs of the two prisoners.

Garcia said the two hostages were seized June 19 in the village of Uper Ulip in Compostela Valley’s Monkayo town near the town of Cateel.

The rebels are fighting for decades now for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)