Troops pursue rebels after Compostela Valley ambush

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The military on Thursday launched an operation against a band of communist rebels who killed a soldier and wounded two others in an ambush in Pantukan, Compostela Valley, the previous day.

Lieutenant Colonel Lyndon Paniza, spokesman of the 10th Infantry Division based here, said the rebels had fled to the hinterlands of Pantukan after sustaining injuries in the hour-long clash that followed the ambush. They were being pursued, he said.

Elements of the Army’s 71st Infantry Battalion were on patrol in Barangay (village) Tibagon around 11:50 a.m. Wednesday when New People’s Army rebels set off a landmine before firing on them.

Paniza said the soldiers fired back and engaged the rebels in an hour-long firefight.

“The government troops suffered one killed in action and two wounded while casualties from the NPA side were not determined,” he said.

Paniza said the wounded soldiers had been evacuated by helicopter to the Eastern Mindanao Command Hospital in Panacan here.