PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 23, 2013) – Government troops killed at least 3 communist rebels in a clash on Wednesday in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Sur, an army commander said.
General Ricardo Rainier Cruz III, commander of the 1st Infantry Division, said patrolling troops ran into a group of New People’s Army rebels in the village of Maimbong Mati in Tigbao town and a fire fight ensued.
He said three soldiers were also wounded in the fighting. “Our troops killed at least 3 rebels and recovered their bodies and automatic weapons,” Cruz told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
The fighting came a day after NPA rebels attacked a military convoy in Davao Oriental’s Lupon town and killed one soldier and wounded five others.
The rebels are also holding an army soldier Jesrel Colanggo and policeman Ruel Pasion, who were both captured January 17 at a checkpoint in the village of Mangloy in Laak town in Compostela Valley province.
Rigoberto Sanchez, a rebel spokesman, the 2 prisoners are being treated well. He said the soldier is a member of the 60th Infantry Battalion which the NPA accused as behind the series of extrajudicial killings of innocent civilians in the province. (Mindanao Examiner. With a report from Ely Dumaboc.)
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