2 killed in fresh NPA attacks in Mindanao

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Two Philippine Army soldiers were killed in separate attacks by communist-led rebels in the southern Philippines, a spokesman for the New People’s Army said Tuesday. Daniel Ibarra, of the NPA’s Front 27 Operations Command, said rebel forces mounted the offensives against troops of the 71st Infantry Battalion and 2nd Scout Ranger Battalion in Compostela Valley province, a known NPA stronghold. The troops were part of a large security force sent to fight the rebels who are holding three soldiers and a militiaman in Mindanao. They arrived last month from Luzon to augment other Army battalions already deployed in Mindanao to defeat the communist insurgency. The NPA spokesman said that its Rhyme Petalcorin-Front 27 Operations Command “hit twice the operating units of the 10th Infantry Division," referring to the newly-deployed 71st IB and the 2nd SRB in Compostela Valley. Ibarra said the NPA “punitive action… inflicted at least two casualties," adding that government forces “retaliated thru indiscriminate aerial bombardment using OV-10 Bronco planes which not only terrorized the civilian populace but also failed to hit its target." Capt. Emmanuel Garcia, a spokesman for the 10th Infantry Division, denied the rebel reports, but mentioned a recent casualty in Compostela Valley. “That’s not true; the reports of the terrorists are all lies. But there was one militia killed in the fighting with the NPA in Compostela Valley. The military operation against the dissident-terrorists is going on," Garcia said. The NPA is the military arm of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines which has been waging a “protracted people’s war" for more than 40 years now. —Al Jacinto/JV, GMANews.TV