Foot patrolling troops were attacked with homemade bombs on the eastern island of Samar killing six and injuring 20 others. A rebel group called New People’s Army rebels on Monday ambushed the soldiers threw bombs and engaged them in a gun duel for about 30 minutes.
“They used IEDs (improvised explosive devices), leading to a large number of casualties,” regional military spokesman Captain Reynaldo Aragones told AFP, adding one rebel was also killed.
The NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, launched its rebellion to create a Maoist state in 1969. According to the military, the insurgency has claimed 40,000 lives. Samar is an impoverished region that is fertile ground for recruitment by the 4,000-member NPA.
The NPA killed six soldiers in a similar attack elsewhere on Samar in April, while a military raid uncovered and destroyed NPA bomb-making camp last month, he added. (AFP)
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