2 soldiers wounded in NPA ambush in Davao City

DAVAO CITY – New People’s Army rebels ambushed a military truck and wounded 2 soldiers in Davao City, the hometown of President Rodrigo Duterte, in eastern Mindanao in southern Philippines.

The attack, which occurred Wednesday afternoon in Malabog village in Paquibato district, targeted members of the 16^th Infantry Battalion. The ambush sparked a brief firefight and it was unknown whether any of the communist rebels were wounded or killed in the clash.

The 1003^rd Infantry Brigade said the soldiers were sent to the area after receiving reports of the presence of rebels in Paquibato, a known lair of the communist group which has been fighting for many decades now for the establishment of a separate state.

On Tuesday, army soldiers also clashed with rebels in Bayog town in Zamboanga del Sur province in western Mindanao. Members of the 97^th Infantry Battalion encountered the gunmen while patrolling the village of Balukbahan where NPA forces had been reported collecting money from civilians, according to Lt. Col. Manaros Boransing, the battalion commander, who said troops recovered an automatic assault rifle and an improvised explosive left behind by fleeing gunmen.

“The locals are already complaining on the exploitation and abuse of the NPA, coercing them to provide money and food to feed the armed group while we're on Covid-19 crisis,” he said.

Col. Leonel Nicolas, commander of the 102nd Infantry Brigade, said the operation against the NPA will continue. “We will continue to put pressure to this terrorist group to weaken their will to fight and force them to lay down their arms and abandon their useless armed struggle,” he said. (Mindanao Examiner)

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