Air Force tests F-50 fighter jets by bombing suspected NPA guerrilla camp in North Samar

From the Business Mirror (Oct 28, 2019): Air Force tests F-50 fighter jets by bombing suspected NPA guerrilla camp in North Samar

THE Philippine Air Force tested its new F-50 fighter jets that dropped 500 pounds of bombs on Saturday an area in Northern Samar that the military said was used by communist guerrillas as a camp.

The reported encampment of the New People’s Army (NPA) was obliterated, according to Capt. Reynaldo C. Aragones Jr., spokesman of the Army’s Eighth Infantry Division.

Aragones said the “surgical strikes” were carried out by the Air Force’s newest fighter jets that bombed Barangay Caputoan, Las Navas, Northern Samar.

The military said about 50 rebels led by a certain Ceriaco Jerusalem occupied the camp.

Aragones added that while bodies were to be unearthed yet, they believed the NPA sustained casualties, as shown by bloodstains along the routes leading away from the destroyed camp, as reported by pursuing ground troops.

“Upon the conduct of bomb damage assessment in the impact area by ground troops [on Sunday], the surgical air strike resulted to the obliteration of makeshift huts in the rebel camp and initial recovery of evidences of NPA activities,” Aragones said in a statement.

The military said soldiers also recovered 11 civilian backpacks, three military-type backpacks, seven hammocks, two sacks of rice, assorted food supplies, a box of dried fish, two sacks of land mine, three mobile phones with chargers and an ICOM radio.

Likewise, a laptop, a landline tester, 11 flash drives, four SIM cards, two external drives, assorted blasting caps, a roll of detonating wire, several ammunition for various type of firearms, magazines, homemade bombs, two anti-tank landmines and assorted medical supplies were also discovered.

Aragones added that ongoing search and pursuit operations by troops under the 803rd Infantry Brigade are being sustained to ensure the NPA guerrillas are caught.

Meanwhile, a soldier was killed while another one was wounded after two firefights broke out between soldiers and rebels at Barangay Suquib in the municipality of Besao, Mountain province, on Thursday, a belated report from the military said.

Based on a report provided by the 702nd Infantry Brigade, the first encounter occurred at around 2:20 p.m., while the second clash broke out at around 4 p.m. the same day.

The encounters happened just around 2 kilometers apart.

Major Amado C. Gutierrez, spokesman of the Seventh Infantry Division, said the rebels encountered by soldiers belong to a unit of the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, operating in the tri-boundaries of Abra, Mountain province, and Ilocos Sur.

Gutierrez said that a few weeks before the clashes, the 702nd Brigade intensified its combat operations in the whole of Region 1 and in parts of the Cordillera Autonomous Region, including the province of Abra and the municipalities of Besao and Tadian, Mountain province.

“We will not allow our setbacks to deter us from our goal of totally putting an end to the local communist armed conflict. With the people on our side, we will continue to pursue the terrorists until we achieved our objective,” Gutierrez quoted 7th ID Commander Major Gen. Lenard T. Agustin, as saying.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/10/28/air-force-tests-f-50-fighter-jets-by-bombing-suspected-npa-guerrilla-camp-in-north-samar/