CPP/NPA: Two ambushes in the early morning

From the December 7 edition of the CPP publication Ang Bayan: Two ambushes in the early morning

Red fighters from the Benito Tesorio and Reynaldo Piñon Commands dealt blows on the strike forces of the 5th ID in two separate ambushes in the early morning of November 27. The 51st and 52nd Division Reconnaissance Companies (DRC) are the so-called elite units of the 5th ID. Up to 13 of their troops fell in battle in two firefights that took place three hours apart in the adjacent towns of San Mariano and Echague.

In an official statement, the Benito Tesorio Command reported having seized an M60 and three K3 submachine guns, five M16 rifles, three pairs of night vision scopes, a Harris radio, a pair of binoculars, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and 15 US backpacks from the enemy in the second gunbattle in Echague.

The 51st and 52nd DRC’s tactics involve night movements and the use of night vision scopes. These two ambushes proved that despite operating under cover of darkness, the enemy could not conceal the pattern of its movements from the masses and the NPA.

At 1:30 a.m. of November 17, in Sitio Luzcon, Barangay Gangalan, San Mariano, six troopers from a platoon under the 51st DRC led by 2Lieutenant Cabanas were killed in an ambush by a platoon under the Reynaldo Piñon Command.

Meanwhile, in the early morning of November 16 in Mabbayad, Echague, Red fighters ambushed elements of the 52nd DRC conducting operations in an area that was previously the site of an NPA encampment. Seeing no one at the site, they stayed the whole day in a place full of thickets. An NPA platoon nearby learned of their presence and positioned themselves in a place where the soldiers would likely pass and waited in ambush.....

Before these two victorious ambuscades, three gunbattles took place between the NPA and the 51st DRC in Jones and San Mariano towns. Nine soldiers were killed and at least ten wounded in these firefights. Two soldiers were killed and ten wounded in a harassment operation by an NPA squad on November 8 against the 54-man 51st DRC troop in Sitio Namulan, Barangay San Jose, San Mariano. The AFP concealed this from the media, but several peasants saw two military helicopters retrieving the dead and wounded.

Meantime, four troopers from a 25-man platoon of the 51st DRC were killed in another harassment operation by an NPA team on October 30 at Si- tio Old Nursery, Barangay Disulap, San Mariano.

At past midnight on October 17, three soldiers from a 24-man platoon also of the 51st DRC were felled and an undetermined number wounded in an encounter with a platoon under the Benito Tesorio Command in Sitio Kidog-kidog, Barangay Santa Isabel, Jones town. The Red fighters did not suffer any casualties in the 30-minute firefight. The 5th ID claimed that neither side suffered casualties. (Culled from a report from the Fortunato Camus Command NPA-Cagayan Valley)

http://www.philippinerevolution.net/publications/ang_bayan/20121207/two-ambushes-in-the-early-morning