3 Reds killed, 7 others captured in Mindanao

Three communist rebels were killed while seven others surrendered as the military’s stepped up its anti-insurgency operations in Eastern Mindanao. Lt. Gen. Greg Almerol said military offensives in Surigao del Sur resulted in the death of three guerillas of the communist New People’s Army. Seven communist rebels surrendered due to exhaustion and hunger in Davao del Norte and Cotabato, and security forces there discovered two minors, aged 15 and 16, with the surrenderers. Almerol, in a statement, condemned the communist rebels’ disregard for international humanitarian law in recruiting minors as combatants and using land mines. The Eastern Mindanao Command commander said his unit would coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare Development regarding the care of the two teenagers. —JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE