5 injured in rebel ambush in Mindanao

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 18): 5 injured in rebel ambush in Mindanao

Communist rebels ambushed a group of army soldiers and government militias and wounded at least 5 of them in the southern Philippines, officials said on Saturday.

Army Captain Alberto Caber, a spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command, said the attack occurred in the village of Tagugpo in Compostela Valley’s Pantukan town. He said four soldiers and a militia were reported injured in the Friday ambush.

“The wounded personnel were immediately provided first aid by the troops in the area. They are now in stable condition. Pursuit operations are still ongoing,” Caber told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.

He said the wounded soldiers were all members of the 101st Division Reconnaissance Company under the 10th Infantry Division.

The ambush occurred just as the military launched operations to track down the NPA ambushers who killed an army scout ranger and wounded an officer in separate attacks recently.

Motorcycle gunmen shot dead a soldier of the 12th Scout Ranger Company in the village of San Antonio also in Compostela Valley’s Mabini town on July 16. The soldier was returning home after bringing his son to school when two gunmen in separate motorcycles shot him.

Two gunmen also on a motorcycle shot Colonel Edwin Respecio, deputy commander of the army’s 10th Regional Community Defense Group in Cagayan de Oro City. He was travelling in a car when the gunmen shot him several times.

The NPA has been fighting for many decades now for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country.

http://mindanaoexaminer.com/5-injured-in-rebel-ambush-in-mindanao/