Suspected rebel killed in Compostela Valley clash

TAGUM CITY, Philippines— A suspected rebel was killed in an encounter between government troops and the New People’s Army in Monkayo, Compostela Valley early Monday morning, a local police official said.

Pursuit operations were still ongoing hours after the gunfight broke out at 5:20 a.m. in Barangay Tubo-tubo, according to Senior Supt. Camilo Cascolan, Compostela Valley police chief.

A militiaman was slightly wounded in the leg as troops from the army’s 25th Infantry Battalion and the 1001st Division Reconnaisance Company shot it out with some 30 guerrillas under a Commander Ade of the NPA’s Front 25, said Cascolan.

“One body of a slain (alleged rebel) and an M-16 rifle were recovered from the area. Fire fight is still ongoing (as of 7 a.m.) as pursuit operations continue,” Cascolan told the INQUIRER in a text message.

Monday’s clash came just days after the military also figured in a series of clashes in Laak town, also in Compostela Valley that led to the death of a guerrilla and the capture of another.

Police and military official said security forces in the province have been put on high alert weeks after the NPA launched offensives in the gold-rich province, as well as in this city, culminating in the kidnapping of six people, including a 10-year old girl and the sacking of an officer of one of Southern Mindanao’s top private security agencies. With a report from Jamie Elona, Inquirer.net.

Originally posted at 08:46 am | Monday, June 03, 2013