CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — Six soldiers were killed and 24 others were wounded when troops hunting for communist rebels, stepped in a field of land mines or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Eastern Samar, on Monday afternoon (November 11).
Captain Reynaldo Aragones, public information officer of the 8th Infantry Division, said a 30-minute firefight ensued between the surviving soldiers and some 50 New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
Aragones said the soldiers killed one rebel in retaliation for the heavy casualties they incurred.
“The soldiers recovered one body, and they are still scouring the area right now,” Aragones told CDN Digital.
He said three platoons of soldiers went to check reports of the NPA rebels’ presence in Sitio Bangon, Barangay Pinanag-an, Borongan City last Monday.
He said the soldiers searched the village the entire day, found nothing and decided to return to their base.
Aragones said on the way to their camp, the soldiers walked into a field where rebels already planted improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
“Six IEDs exploded simultaneously tearing through the soldiers’ ranks,” he said.
Aragones said the rebels fired at the surviving soldiers and the 30-minute firefight ensued.
The New People’s Army is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines who has engaged in a five decades-old insurgency in the countrysides.
President Rodrigo Duterte walked away from peace negotiations with rebels in 2017, as both sides accused each other of ceasefire violations.
The government is now engaged in enticing rebels and their sympathetic communities to surrender promising them with money and livelihood assistance./dbs