DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / May 05, 2008) – Communist rebels attacked early Monday a Philippine military convoy killing three soldiers in the southern province of North Cotabato, officials said.
“Three of our soldiers are killed and initial reports said three others were wounded in the ambush,” Maj. Raymundo Aguada, spokesman for the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.
Other reports said as many as 13 soldiers were wounded in the ambush staged by the New People’s Army, which is fighting the past four decades for a separate Maoist state in the country.
Aguada said the rebels detonated a roadside bomb and then attacked the convoy transporting troops in the town of President Roxas. “There is an ongoing pursuit operation in the province,” he said.
He said the ambushed soldiers were part a larger group that launched a fresh offensive against rebel forces in the province, a known NPA stronghold in the southern Philippines.
There was no immediate statement from rebel leaders, but the NPA has previously warned that it would mount more attacks against government and military targets in the country.
The NPA is also holding two government soldiers, Napoleon Gerasmio and Huberto Corbita, who are both army sergeants. They were captured at a rebel checkpoint on April 24 in the mountain village of Upper Ulip in Compostela Valley's Monkayo town.
“Three of our soldiers are killed and initial reports said three others were wounded in the ambush,” Maj. Raymundo Aguada, spokesman for the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.
Other reports said as many as 13 soldiers were wounded in the ambush staged by the New People’s Army, which is fighting the past four decades for a separate Maoist state in the country.
Aguada said the rebels detonated a roadside bomb and then attacked the convoy transporting troops in the town of President Roxas. “There is an ongoing pursuit operation in the province,” he said.
He said the ambushed soldiers were part a larger group that launched a fresh offensive against rebel forces in the province, a known NPA stronghold in the southern Philippines.
There was no immediate statement from rebel leaders, but the NPA has previously warned that it would mount more attacks against government and military targets in the country.
The NPA is also holding two government soldiers, Napoleon Gerasmio and Huberto Corbita, who are both army sergeants. They were captured at a rebel checkpoint on April 24 in the mountain village of Upper Ulip in Compostela Valley's Monkayo town.
Rigoberto Sanchez, a rebel spokesman, said the two soldiers are being investigated by a rebel court of any human rights abuses and crimes against civilians.
The rebels, military wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front, broke away in 2004 from peace talks with the Arroyo government after the United States and the European Union included the rebel groups in the list of foreign terrorist organizations on Manila’s prodding. (Mindanao Examiner)
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