UNARMED? | Reds say NPA seized 14 weapons from cops in Mountain Province ambush

From InterAksyon (Jun 29): UNARMED? | Reds say NPA seized 14 weapons from cops in Mountain Province ambush

Communist rebels on Saturday claimed the New People’s Army guerrillas who staged an ambush on police personnel in Tadian town, Mountain Province the day before had seized 14 rifles, belying government statements the trainees were unarmed.

A policeman died and nine others were wounded in the ambush, which the government immediately said was carried out on unarmed trainees who were on a morning jog.

“Initial reports indicate that the NPA Red fighters were able to seize at least 14 high-powered rifles” from the personnel of the Regional Public Safety Battalion, the Communist Party of the Philippines said in a statement on its website.

In a separate statement, the NPA’s Leonardo Pacsi Command, which carried out the ambush, said the police personnel it attacked “were fully armed” and that its fighters had seized 11 M16 rifles and three M14s.

“The NPA withdrew without casualties after giving first aid to the wounded and releasing a number of captured PNP combatants,” the NPA unit’s spokesman, Magno Udyaw, said.

“The swift attack was conducted while the said troops, numbering more than a hundred including their trainors, were on bivouac towards Abatan, Bauko,” Udyaw added.

In its statement, the CPP said: “The ambushed PNP-RPSB forces were armed, capable of fighting and in fact, put up a fight, although a number of them scampered away after being surprised by the NPA ambush. Local police officers make twisted claims that the PNP-RPSB forces and their trainees were ‘technically’ unarmed because their rifles were without bullets."

As it hailed the NPA unit that staged the ambush, the CPP urged other rebel formations “to launch more frequent and bigger tactical offensives.”

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/65201/unarmed--reds-say-npa-seized-14-weapons-from-cops-in-mountain-province-ambush