Thursday, April 28, 2011

NPA rebel killed in Surigao raid


CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 28, 2011) – Communist rebels attacked a police station in the southern Philippines on Thursday, sparking a fierce firefight that left one raider dead, officials told the Mindanao Examiner.

Officials said another gunman was wounded and captured in the fighting as troops launched a pursuit operation on a band of New People’s Army in the town of Lianga in Surigao del Sur province.

The rebels also opened fire on a civilian vehicle wounding one of its passengers as they try to flee from security forces, said Major Eugenio Osias, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division.

He said policemen and soldiers repulsed the raid.

“There is a pursuit operation and General Felix ordered troops to get the raiders,” he said, referring to the local division commander, Major General Victor Felix.

Osias said soldiers have recovered an M16 automatic rifle left behind by rebels, who are fighting for decades for the establishment of a separate Maoist state.

The raid came as government and rebel leaders are negotiating for an end to bloody fighting in the country that had killed hundreds of thousands of people the past four decades. (Mindanao Examiner)

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