NPA owns attack on Army detachment in Iligan City

Two armored personnel carriers of the Army’s Fourth Mechanized Infantry Battalion move along an intersection in Iligan City Friday afternoon as these were deployed to pursue New People’s Army rebels who attacked a military detachment in the hinterland village of Kalilangan. (Photo by: Richel V.Umel,Inquirer Mindanao)

ILIGAN CITY –– The communist New People’s Army (NPA) has admitted to attacking a detachment of the Philippine Army in a hinterland village of the city on Friday morning.

The admission came in a text message sent to several local reporters by a certain Roxanne, who identified herself as media liaison of the NPA’s North-Central Mindanao Region.

She said a team of guerrillas “sniped and harassed” the detachment.

However, the rebel group mistakenly claimed to have killed a government troop, and also missed the exact village where the detachment is located, Dulag instead of Kalilangan.

In a news release, the Army’s 4th Mechanized Infantry Battalion said two civilian militias were wounded in Friday’s attack.

They were rushed to a hospital in the city for medical attention and are now in stable condition.

Lt. Col. Domingo Dulay, commanding officer of the 4th Mechanized Infantry Battalion, said pursuit operation was ongoing in the city’s hinterlands.

Two armored personnel carriers were deployed there on Friday to beef up the forces arrayed against the rebels.

LZB