DTN News: Philippines TODAY March 7, 2010 ~ Communist Ambush Kills 11 Philippine Soldiers: Military
Source: DTN News / AFP
(NSI News Source Info) MANILA, Philippines - March 7, 2010:
Communist guerrillas killed 11 Philippine soldiers Saturday in a gun battle on Mindoro island, south of the capital, a military spokesman said.
The soldiers were on patrol when they ran into a fortified camp of the New People's Army (NPA) guerrilla group, said Colonel Romeo Brawner.
Seven soldiers were also wounded in the ensuing battle, with "undetermined casualties" among the rebels, he added.
"The troops fought it out literally to the last bullet," Brawner said.
Among the dead was the lieutenant who led the patrol, he added.
Soldiers backed by helicopter gunships had been sent to Mindoro to track down the NPA insurgents, he said.
The battle was the fiercest fighting to involve the NPA and the military since nine rebels and one soldier were killed in a raid on a guerilla camp on the southern island of Mindanao in December.
In the latest clash, the soldiers were patrolling an area about 90 kilometres (56 miles) from Manila as part of measures to protect candidates in the upcoming May national elections, said Brawner.
The NPA has been extorting payments from candidates in exchange for "permits to campaign" cards. Those who refuse to pay are attacked and sometimes killed.
This week, suspected communist insurgents shot dead a former policeman running for local office in the May elections after he refused to pay.
Last month, the military reported that it had confiscated dozens of "permit to campaign" cards that the NPA rebels were selling to candidates.
The permits were being sold at rates that varied according to the position being contested. Candidates for congress were being charged as much as 2.2 million pesos (47,500 dollars) to campaign without being harassed.
For the past 40 years the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the NPA, have waged a campaign to seize power. The conflict peaked in the 1980s, when rebel ranks reached 26,000.
The military estimates the NPA's numbers have fallen to just above 3,000 but the guerrillas remain a potent force.
The military said in September that the communist rebellion had claimed more than 3,000 lives since 2001, including over 500 civilians killed in crossfire.
Source: DTN News / AFP
(NSI News Source Info) ZAMBOANGA, Philippines - March 8, 2010: Philippine marines killed seven Islamist militants early Sunday in a raid on their remote southern 
island hideout, the military said.
One marine was also slightly wounded in the amphibious assault on the island of Laminusa in the Sulu group before dawn, said Brigadier General Rustico Guerrero, commander of a counter-terrorism task force based in the port city of Zamboanga.
Philippines troops kill seven militants in raid He told reporters the raid targeted the group of a man who goes by the alias Abu Benhur, whom he described as a member of the Abu Sayyaf group with active ties to Jemaah Islamiyah.
"That was his cell," Guerrero said. "But we don't have the identities of the dead yet."
He said the raiders were targeting 13 people hiding out in a warren of houses by the seashore that were fortified by bunkers, and it was possible that at least some of the militants escaped.
"There were sand bags on the pathways. They were really prepared. We are thankful that only one of us was hit," Guerrero said.
Two of the dead suspects are women, said Lieutenant-General Ben Dolorfino, the regional military commander.
The Abu Sayyaf is a 400-member group of Islamist militants operating in the remote Sulu group and nearby islands and which has been blamed for most of the country's deadliest terrorist attacks.
Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah, which has carried out a series of bombings in Indonesia, are allegedly planning to set up a pan-Islamic caliphate across Southeast Asia.
In recent days the military and police have expressed concern over the militants' growing use of roadside bombs in ambushes of security forces in the south.
