NPA rebels bomb police station in Southern Philippines

From the Mindanao Examiner (Jul 19): NPA rebels bomb police station in Southern Philippines

Communist insurgents attacked a police station, detonating a bomb that also injured a civilian in their continuing offensive against security targets in southern Philippines.

The army sent troops to help police forces pursue the attackers behind the latest attack in Compostela Valley’s Mabini town late on Saturday, according to its spokesman, Captain Alberto Caber, of the Eastern Mindanao Command.

Caber claimed that a 21-year old villager, Ravelyn Cobrado, suffered shrapnel wounds from the explosion that targeted the Mabini Police Station. “Ravelyn was rushed to Davao Regional Hospital for treatment by responding civilians and security forces in the area,” he said.

He said soldiers from the 71st Infantry Battalion and local policemen were sent to pursue the rebels, who are members of the separatist group New People’s Army.

Caber said at least 10 civilians were killed and wounded in separate rebel bombings in the provinces of North Cotabato and Surigao del Sur, and that they had recovered 5 dozen improvised explosives and landmines planted by rebels in the restive region.

He accused the NPA of violating a ban on the use of landmines, but rebel leaders said all the explosives were command-detonated.

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

http://mindanaoexaminer.com/npa-rebels-bomb-police-station-in-southern-philippines/