3 dead, 8 wounded in NPA ambush in Davao City

From the Mindanao Examiner (Mar 10): 3 dead, 8 wounded in NPA ambush in Davao City

New People’s Army rebels killed at least 3 government soldiers and wounded eight more in an ambush in Davao City in the southern Philippines, a spokesman for the communist group said Sunday.

Simon Santiago said rebel forces attacked soldiers and policemen, including militiamen, in the village of Carmen in Baguio district during an offensive operation over the weekend. He said rebels seized automatic weapons and munitions from government forces during the assault.

“The NPA ambush was to give justice to the victims of the 84th Infantry Battalion its use of Lumad vigilantes in its current intensive military operations,” he told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.

He said the military offensive, which started on February 27, affected civilians in the villages of Cadalian, Tambobong, Tawan-tawan, Carmen and Tamayong.

“It is futile and illusory for the 10th Infantry Division to conjure an image of Davao City peasant villages bereft of the NPA and revolutionary forces. The recent NPA ambush and the punishment of civilian military spy in Baguio district demonstrate the pursuit of revolutionary justice consistently upheld by the people's army,” Santiago said, referring to the killing by rebels of Paulino Landim, Jr. on March 2.

The NPA accused Landim, son of a tribal chieftain, as behind the killing of a rebel last month during a raid by the military and police in Davao City. The rebels have been fighting for decades for a separate communist state in the country.

There was no immediate statement from the military and police about the ambush.

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