MANILA, Philippines Commie rebels began shooting on a police patrol on a mountain road east of the Philippine capital Tues. , murdering 4 officials and wounding 5 in the most recent clash in a decades-old insurgency.
About twenty New Peoples’s Army rebels hid along the road in the township of Baras in Rizal province near Manila, began shooting on the police patrol then detonated a land mine, officers related. The brazen ambush was the most recent flare-up in small town insurgency which has left thousands dead and stunted industrial development since the 1970s.
The overmatched police commandos returned fire, but 4 died and 5 were injured in the clash, said police Special Action Force chief Leocadio Santiago.
At least two officials were missing, although it was unclear whether or not they were kidnapped by the rebels or had escaped the assault, armed forces brigade chief Col. Aurelio Baladad expounded.
Regime troops joined police in a great hunt for the attackers and were looking hospices for hurt terrorists, asserted regional police director Rolando Anonuevo.
The ambush followed an earlier encounter between troops and rebels in bordering Laguna province that left a 2-year-old girl hurt Monday, related police speaker Leonardo Espina. The girl was hit by shrapnel and was recovering in a hospice, he claimed.
The rebels say they are fighting to line up a Marxist state. After reaching their top strength during Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship that finished in 1986, they didn’t come to terms with a new democratic government, blaming it for deep social divisions and contemptible misery.
Their ranks have thinned to about four thousand from more than 25,000 in the mid-1980s due to battle reversals, surrenders and factionalism.
Peace talks between the rebels and the govt. brokered by Norway crumpled in 2004 after the rebels charged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s administration of instigating their inclusion on U.S.
Arroyo has ordered the army to beat the rebels by the end of her term in June, but on Web postings the rebels have discharged the deadline as rhetoric.