10 wounded in NPA rebel attacks in Davao City, S. Cotabato

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Communist rebels ambushed a military convoy of eight Army trucks and raided a police station in separate attacks, wounding at least 10 people in the outskirts of Davao City, Army spokesman Lt. Col Brawner said on Friday. The rebels detonated a land mine by the roadside while the military convoy was passing through village in the city's Paquibato District on Thursday. "Seven infantry soldiers were wounded in the landmine attack," Brawner said. The soldiers also battled at least five rebels, but there were no reports of on the side of the New People's Army. The soldiers were traveling in a convoy of eight KM450 trucks when the rebels detonated a land mine, he said. "One truck was destroyed in the blast," Brawner said. Another group of NPA rebels also raided a police station in South Cotabato's Tampakan town later in the day. At least three policemen were reported wounded in the raid. The attacks coincided with demands by NPA to free three rebels arrested by soldiers on Jan. 26 in Compostela Valley province. Rebel leaders said the trio – Ruel Cabales, 41; Nelson Carvajosa, 35; and Catherine Cacdac, 31 – were abducted by soldiers. "The January 26 incident is a blatant abduction," rebel spokesman Rigoberto Sanchez said. "The 10th Infantry Division, which prides itself in torturing captured NPA combatants and finishing off the NPA, employs treachery and makes a mockery of the international humanitarian law and the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law." "We demand that the 10th Infantry Division surface Ka Rael, Ka Janggo, and Ka Kulay, and to treat their captives humanely according to universally acceptable norms and to desist from subjecting the said NPA cadres to barbaric and inhuman torture," he added. Last year, the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines ordered the NPA to intensify attacks as part of its new offensive, whose main purpose was to seize weapons and increase the number of rebel forces. The CPP broke off peace talks with Manila in 2004 after the United States listed the communist groups as foreign terrorist organizations and froze their assets abroad at the government's prodding. - Al Jacinto, GMANews.TV