2 NPAs killed in Leyte clash

From Malaya Business Insight (Jan 5): 2 NPAs killed in Leyte clash

TWO New People’s Army rebels died yesterday in a firefight with government forces in Baybay City in Leyte.

The firefight is the first to be reported since government’s unilateral New Year’s truce with the communist rebels ended last Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Raul Farnacio, commander of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division, said troops from Army’s 78th Infantry Battalion were on security operation when they encountered about 20 NPA rebels in Barangay Hilapatan at around 10:45 a.m.

The two sides traded fire for an hour, after which the communists withdrew, leaving behind the bodies of their two slain comrades.

Farnacio said soldiers recovered at the encounter site an M16 rifle and an M653 rifle.

President Duterte declared a Christmas truce with the communists from December 23 to 26 and a New Year’s truce from December 30 to January 2. The communists also declared ceasefires covering the same dates.

On Tuesday hours before the truce ended, NPA groups attacked three Army detachments in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental.

Government militiaman Jerick Ciel, was wounded in the forehead in one of the attacks and is being treated at the Montevista Provincial Hospital in Compostela Valley.

Capt. Jerry Lamosao, spokesman of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, said Ciel was injured in the attack on the Army detachment in Barangay Maparat, Compostela town.

He said the rebels first detonated an improvised bomb about 15 meters away from the detachment around 10:40 p.m. Tuesday. The explosion was followed by a brief firefight, which left an undetermined number of casualties on the NPA side.

Four hours earlier, another group of rebels attacked an Army detachment in Barangay Cabuyoan in Mabini town, also in Compostela Valley. Soldiers manning the detachment returned fire at the rebels who were positioned about 200 meters from the detachment.

No one was reported injured or killed in the 15-minute firefight.

In Davao Oriental, NPA rebels attacked an Army detachment in Barangay Marayag in Lupon town around 9:20 p.m. also on Tuesday.

Maj. Ezra Balagtey, spokesman of the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command, said the rebels, numbering around six men, fled after a three-minute fighting. He said no one was reported killed or injured.

Balagtey said the rebels violated their own truce on three other occasions in eastern Mindanao, including the failed abduction of militiaman Arbilito Catampao in Tarragona town Davao Oriental on December 25.

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