*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media
(NSI News Source Info) MANILA, Philippines - September 6, 2009: Army troops clashed with communist guerrillas Sunday in the southern Philippines, killing four rebels and seizing several weapons, officials said. 
The NPA's armed insurrection followed the traditional pattern of guerrilla warfare. NPA units were formed at the regional and front levels and were normally company-sized or smaller. Main regional guerrilla units usually had 80 to 150 fighters, whereas secondary units had 30 to 60 fighters. NPA operations were, by design, extremely decentralized, with local commanders having wide latitude to conduct attacks as they chose. Typically, NPA elements avoided contact with AFP troops by remaining in remote, mountainous areas until ready to stage an attack. For an assault, they concentrated their forces, forming companies and sometimes battalions to overwhelm government troopers. Afterward, they dispersed to avoid AFP retaliation. Isolated government outposts of the constabulary, police, and militia were favorite targets. The NPA also attacked public buildings such as town halls as a demonstration of its power. The property of uncooperative landowners and businessmen was another common target. The communists normally attacked private property to punish owners for alleged abuses or to coerce the payment of "revolutionary taxes." Attacks on the country's infrastructure were rare; the NPA's demolition of several bridges on Luzon's Bicol Peninsula in 1987 created a popular backlash that apparently caused the NPA to abandon the tactic.
The communists' traditionally rural struggle came to the cities in the mid-1980s with the dramatic increase in NPA assassinations. Beginning in 1984, Davao City became the laboratory for the NPA's developing urban warfare strategy. There, armed city partisan units, known popularly as "sparrow teams," murdered local officials, constables, police, and military personnel in a sustained terror campaign. The NPA selectively targeted unpopular officials, claiming that the killings provided revolutionary justice. The NPA's Davao City offensive ended in 1986, but not before Romulo Kintanar, the mastermind of the Davao City offensive and future NPA chief, had initiated a similar operation in Manila. The tempo of sparrow assassinations in the capital increased slowly after 1984, then rose dramatically in 1987. Some 120 officials, including Aquino's secretary of local government, were assassinated by the NPA that year. As sparrow activity escalated, NPA targeting became more indiscriminate.
Soldiers and militiamen were patrolling before dawn near a farming village in Agusan del Sur province when they clashed with about two dozen New People's Army guerrillas, regional army spokeswoman Maj. Michele Anayron said.
The guerrillas withdrew but troops caught up and clashed with them again about four hours later, she said.
Troops recovered the bodies of four rebels along with a grenade launcher, eight assault rifles, a shotgun, a pistol and a land mine, Anayron said. There were no casualties among the government troops.
The clashes were the latest eruption of violence in a 40-year Marxist rebellion that is one of the longest in Asia. The government says the rural-based insurgency has claimed about 120,000 lives and helped stunt economic growth.
Negotiations between the rebels and the government collapsed in 2004 after the rebels blamed the government for their inclusion on U.S. and European lists of terrorist groups. Both sides took steps to resume the talks in recent weeks but the efforts again fell apart.
While she has pursued talks, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo also has ordered the military to crush the insurgency by the time she steps down next year.
The NPA's armed insurrection followed the traditional pattern of guerrilla warfare. NPA units were formed at the regional and front levels and were normally company-sized or smaller. Main regional guerrilla units usually had 80 to 150 fighters, whereas secondary units had 30 to 60 fighters. NPA operations were, by design, extremely decentralized, with local commanders having wide latitude to conduct attacks as they chose. Typically, NPA elements avoided contact with AFP troops by remaining in remote, mountainous areas until ready to stage an attack. For an assault, they concentrated their forces, forming companies and sometimes battalions to overwhelm government troopers. Afterward, they dispersed to avoid AFP retaliation. Isolated government outposts of the constabulary, police, and militia were favorite targets. The NPA also attacked public buildings such as town halls as a demonstration of its power. The property of uncooperative landowners and businessmen was another common target. The communists normally attacked private property to punish owners for alleged abuses or to coerce the payment of "revolutionary taxes." Attacks on the country's infrastructure were rare; the NPA's demolition of several bridges on Luzon's Bicol Peninsula in 1987 created a popular backlash that apparently caused the NPA to abandon the tactic.
The communists' traditionally rural struggle came to the cities in the mid-1980s with the dramatic increase in NPA assassinations. Beginning in 1984, Davao City became the laboratory for the NPA's developing urban warfare strategy. There, armed city partisan units, known popularly as "sparrow teams," murdered local officials, constables, police, and military personnel in a sustained terror campaign. The NPA selectively targeted unpopular officials, claiming that the killings provided revolutionary justice. The NPA's Davao City offensive ended in 1986, but not before Romulo Kintanar, the mastermind of the Davao City offensive and future NPA chief, had initiated a similar operation in Manila. The tempo of sparrow assassinations in the capital increased slowly after 1984, then rose dramatically in 1987. Some 120 officials, including Aquino's secretary of local government, were assassinated by the NPA that year. As sparrow activity escalated, NPA targeting became more indiscriminate.
Soldiers and militiamen were patrolling before dawn near a farming village in Agusan del Sur province when they clashed with about two dozen New People's Army guerrillas, regional army spokeswoman Maj. Michele Anayron said.
The guerrillas withdrew but troops caught up and clashed with them again about four hours later, she said.
Troops recovered the bodies of four rebels along with a grenade launcher, eight assault rifles, a shotgun, a pistol and a land mine, Anayron said. There were no casualties among the government troops.
The clashes were the latest eruption of violence in a 40-year Marxist rebellion that is one of the longest in Asia. The government says the rural-based insurgency has claimed about 120,000 lives and helped stunt economic growth.
Negotiations between the rebels and the government collapsed in 2004 after the rebels blamed the government for their inclusion on U.S. and European lists of terrorist groups. Both sides took steps to resume the talks in recent weeks but the efforts again fell apart.
While she has pursued talks, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo also has ordered the military to crush the insurgency by the time she steps down next year.
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