Thursday, January 19, 2012

4 soldiers wounded in rebel ambush in Bukidnon


DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Xinhua) -- Four government soldiers were wounded in an ambush by leftist rebels who had burned two trucks contracted by a Japanese banana firm in the southern Philippines on Wednesday, the military said.

Elements of the army's 8th Infantry Battalion on board a truck and an armored personnel carrier were on their way to respond to a burning incident when waylaid by New People's Army guerrillas along a national highway in Palacapao village, Quezon town, in Mindanao's Bukidnon province around 8 a.m., said Leopoldo Galon, spokesperson of the Eastern Mindanao Command.

The troops were on their way to Kitaotao town, also in Bukidnon, to help pursue NPA gunmen who had burned two trailer trucks hired by Sumitumo Fruits Corporation (Sumifru) Philippines, said Galon.

"Rebels posing as soldiers set up a checkpoint in Sinuda village around 1 a.m. and flagged the vehicles which were likewise doused with gasoline and set on fire," Galon told Xinhua by mobile phone, adding the guerrillas also detonated a landmine during the subsequent ambush eight hours later.

The incidents happened just two days after NPA gunmen attempted to storm a Sumifru plantation in Compostela Valley province also in Mindanao, but were repulsed by soldiers and company guards. Six attackers died in that incident.

The 4,000-strong NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been fighting a leftist insurgency in 60 Philippine provinces since 1969.
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(philstar.com) Updated January 18, 2012 11:04 PM

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