DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 27, 2009) – Communist rebels ambushed a group of government soldiers on Monday and, killing two of them and wounding six more in Davao City in the southern Philippines, officials said.
Officials said the rebels detonated a landmine as the soldiers were passing by the village of Lumiad in Paquibato district, a known stronghold of the New People’s Army.
Captain Rosa Maria Cristina Manuel, a spokeswoman for the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, said the soldiers were members of the 5th Scout Ranger Company who exhumed the remains of a rebel executed by the NPA’s Pulang Bagani Command under Leoncio Pitao.
“The cadaver was exhumed so we can give it a proper and descent burial on the request of the slain rebel’s family,” she said.
The ambush coincided with the President Gloria Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address and ahead of a schedule peace talks next month. The NPA, the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, is fighting the past four decades for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country.
The NPA said it would intensify attacks against government and military targets despite the resumption of the peace talks. Manila has no cease-fire agreement with the rebels. (Mindanao Examiner)
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