DAVAO CITY – Government troops captured two rebel encampments of the communist New People’s Army following fierce clashes in southern Philippines, officials said on Tuesday.
Officials said soldiers from the 26th Infantry Battalion fought twice with rebels in the village called Padiay in Agusan del Sur’s Sibagat town on February 23.
There was no report of military casualties and officials could not say if there were rebels killed in the clashes that lasted nearly an hour.
Maj. Christian Uy, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, said troops recovered at least four improvised explosives in the encampments, including anti-government propaganda.
He said one of the encampment can accomodate at least 50 people. “We captured two NPA encampments and recovered at least four improvised explosives following two separate clashes in the area,” he told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
He also quoted Maj. Gen. Oscar Lactao, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, as saying that the military operations against the NPA will continue. “We are now fighting the NPA in their strongholds and we will continue to hunt them,” Lactao said.
The NPA has been waging a separatist war for many decades now in an effort to put up a communist state in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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