DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / May 4, 2011) – Communist rebels killed a government soldier and wounded two more in a clash Wednesday in Compostela Valley province in the southern Philippines, officials said.
Officials said troops were responding to reports by civilians that New People’s Army rebels were spotted in the village of Tibagon in Pantukan town when they came under fire. “The rebels also detonated a landmine,” said Lieutenant Colonel Lyndon Paniza, a spokesman for the Army’s 10th Infantry Division.
It was not immediately known if there were casualties on the rebel side, but Paniza said one soldier was killed and two other wounded in the fighting that lasted almost an hour.
“It is very unfortunate that another soldier offered his ultimate sacrifice in defending the community. These criminals have taken advantaged of sowing terror to the innocent civilians while our troops are busy responding to the disaster in Pantukan. This is how the rebels sympathize to the suffering of the victims of the recent landslide in the town,” Paniza said.
Paniza was referring to humanitarian missions the military launched on a village hit by landslide last month in Pantukan town that killed over a dozen people. The rebels are fighting to topple the democratic government and establish a Maoist state in the largely Catholic country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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