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Communist guerillas laid out land mines and engaged a
military patrol in a fierce gunbattle in the moutains of Surigao del
Sur, then fled after a government soldier and a rebel militiaman
were slain, while at least 17 others were wounded, it was learned on
Saturday.
In a report of the Philippine
News Agency, the AFP’s Eastern Mindanao Command has been told that
most of the military’s casualties were hit by shrapnel from a land
mine that exploded as they passed a barangay road in the Kamotehan
area, in Barangay Diatagon, Lianga, Surigao del Sur.
The area is said to be a
stronghold of the rebel New People’s Army.
Besides the cadaver of an
unidentified alleged communist guerilla, the government troops are
still trying to scour the area to look for dead and wounded rebels.
Of the 17 military personnel
wounded in the encounter, only five needed medical attention, while
12 others were slightly injured. They were evacuated immediately to
the military hospitals in the cities of Butuan, Agusan del Sur and
Cagayan de Oro in Misamis Oriental.
The identities of the slain and
wounded soldiers were temporarily withheld pending notification of
their next of kin.
Fierce fighting continues to rage
in Surigao del Sur, even as Maj. Gen. Jose T. Barbieto, commander of
the Army’s Northeastern and Northern Mindanao Fourth Infantry
Division deployed two Huey helicopter gunships to extend air cover
to the operating ground troops and to evacuate some of the wounded
soldiers.
The military operation against
communist insurgents in Northeastern Mindanao is personally
supervised by Maj. Gen. Barbieto, utilizing all of the combatants of
the 401st Infantry Brigade in Surigao del Sur.
Elements of the Agusan-based
402nd Infantry Brigade, supported by earth-moving equipment, have
been deployed as blocking forces along the provincial boundary of
Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur and Surigao del Norte.
A spot report reaching Lt. Gen.
Cardozo M. Luna, area command chief of the AFP’s Eastern Mindanao
Command, states that the initial engagement broke out about noontime
on Friday when communist militia believed to be with the Front
Committee No. 19 of the CPP-NPA’s Northeastern Mindanao Regional
Committee waylaid a government security patrol.
When the better-equipped
government troops managed to seize the upper ground, the rebels
started withdrawing towards the nearby forested area.
The howitzer-backed troops, led
by a certain Lt. Sison, re-engaged the fleeing rebels. Some soldiers
got injured when one of them stepped on a land mine the insurgents
planted along their rebels’ escape route, a field report said.
Seized from the fleeing
guerrillas in both encounters were several antipersonnel and
antitank mines, Claymore mines, an M-16 armalite rifle, assorted
live bullets and jungle packs containing assorted medicines,
foodstuffs and personal belongings.
Gen. Barbieto deployed more
combat troops to reinforce the pursuing soldiers in Diatagon area.
He also mobilized the medical corps of the Fourth Infantry Division
to assist the wounded soldiers in Bancasi.
Meanwhile, Chief Supt. Jaime E.
Milla, regional director of the Northeastern Mindanao Police
Regional Office ordered on Saturday all municipal station commanders
in Caraga Region, particularly in Surigao del Sur, to be on “full
alert” as fleeing rebels might stage some diversionary attacks.
OV-10 bombers and all available
attack aircraft in the area were also alerted by the EastMincom to
provide air cover to the ground troops.
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