Capt. Raul Villegas, spokesperson of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, said five soldiers were also injured in the clash that took place in Barangay (village) Aliwagwag at around 2 a.m.
Villegas said soldiers from the 67th Infantry Battalion were sent out to verify the reported movement of about 25 New People’s Army rebels toward the barangay and managed to intercept them just outside Aliwagwag.
“The NPA guerrillas were believed planning to sow violence in the community. Soldiers engaged them in a firefight for about 30 minutes before they were repelled,” he said.
Villegas said that during the clash, the rebels detonated an improvised explosive, which hit the five Army troopers.
The Cateel encounter was the latest in the series of violence involving communist rebels in Mindanao in recent days.
On Sunday, a militiaman was also wounded when communist rebels harassed an outpost of the 72nd Infantry Battalion in Barangay Linda in Nabunturan, Compostela Valley.
On Monday, four soldiers were wounded in a series of encounters between soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division and NPA gunmen in Lagonglong town in Misamis Oriental.
Capt. Christian Uy, 4th ID spokesperson, said the Lagonglong clash took place barely a week after rebels assaulted another paramilitary detachment in Balingasang, also in Misamis Oriental, where a soldiers and four militiamen were killed.
In an earlier interview, Uy said the increasing NPA atrocities were aimed at regaining its lost strongholds.