Army troops capture NPA rebels' camp in Davao Oriental

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 7): Army troops capture NPA rebels' camp in Davao Oriental

Troopers from the Army's 28th Infantry Battalion captured a New People's Army (NPA) camp Sunday morning at Sitio Sebole, Barangay Maragatas, Lupon, Davao Oriental, aside from inflicting an undetermined number of casualties to the rebel force.

Lt. Col. Benjamin Daniel Tiangco, 28th Infantry Battalion commander, said the location of the rebel base was reported to them by concerned civilians and a 40-minute encounter took place starting at 6 a.m., forcing the rebels to retreat.

Recovered from the encounter site were an AR-18 automatic rifle, electrical wires and other landmine paraphernalia, four backpacks containing personal belongings and subversive documents.

There were no casualties on the government side, while several blood trails were discovered in the jungle, indicative that the rebels had many fighters wounded in the encounter, Tiangco said.

Troops are still conducting pursuit operations as of this posting.

On Saturday night, the NPAs conducted simultaneous atrocities on troops at Barangay New Visayas of Lupon and Barangay Araibo of Pantukan.

In New Visayas, the military said four NPA rebels attempted to hostage the wife of a militiaman.Fortunately, the supposed victim was able to shout for help, alerting the nearby Army detachment.

The soldiers were able to fire at the NPAs, forcing the latter to retreat.

In Barangay Araibo, four NPA guerrillas aboard two motorcycles indiscriminately fired at the soldiers.

The troops were conducting security operations after civilians complained of NPAs roaming in the area. The same group of rebels attacked nearby Tagugpo detachment.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=713569