ZAMBOANGA CITY, 31 October 2005 — Communist rebels killed two soldiers and wounded four others in an ambush yesterday in the southern Philippinee province of Surigao del Sur, officials said.
The soldiers were on a truck going to their post in the town of Bislig when rebels detonated a land mine, said Lt. Col. Francisco Simbajon, spokesman for the army’s 4th Infantry Division based in Northern Mindanao.
“It was really a treacherous attack. Land mines are banned around the world but this insurgent group is still using them,” said Simbajon, referring to the New People’s Army (NPA), the military arm of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
The ambush came after soldiers wounded at least 10 rebels in a clash in Surigao del Sur’s Hinatuan town on Friday.
The rebels attacked an army post in the town, sparking a two-hour running gunbattle, the military said.
Two weeks ago, rebels and soldiers also clashed in Singalat village in the town of Calamba in Misamis Occidental province in Mindanao island, leaving a still undetermined number of gunmen dead and wounded.
The NPA has vowed to intensify their attacks on government targets after Manila suspended safety and immunity guarantee for its negotiators following the collapse of the peace talks.
They also killed five soldiers and three civilians in an ambush earlier this month in Sapang Dalaga town in Misamis Occidental province.
The government suspended the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantee after the Communist Party and its political arm, the National Democratic Front (NDF), refused to return from the peace negotiations.
The rebels are demanding that Manila ask the United States and the European Union to strike them off from their lists of foreign terror organizations.
The CPP, NDF and the NPA were blacklisted on Manila’s prodding.
Peace negotiations between the government and the rebel group have been suspended since August last year, following the NDF pullout due to their continued inclusion in the terror lists.
