Troops pursue fleeing rebels who used civilians as shield

ZAMBOANGA CITY: Army troops on Wednesday pursued a band of communist insurgents who seized three civilians and released them after using them as shields as they escaped an intensive military operation in Misamis Occidental.

Captain Benjie Jimenez, spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division, said the operation was the offshoot on an earlier clash with New People’s Army (NPA) in Aloran town where the rebels snatched a farming couple and a villager. The three were later released unharmed and recovered by the soldiers