NEWSFLASH

COMMUNIST REBELS KILL 10 SOLDIERS, MILITIAMEN

Cebu City, March 3, 2000 At least 10 soldiers and militiamen were killed in Bohol province when a ban of communist rebels attacked an army detachment and a truckload of soldiers Thursday.

Michael Manquiquis, spokesman of the military's central Philippine command, said about 40 New People's Army rebels opened fire on an army detachment of 15 soldiers in the town of Balilihan in Bohol province but immediately withdrew.

That incident was apparently a set-up, as a truckload of soldiers and militiamen sent to reinforce the detachment was ambushed along the way in a mountain town.

A clash ensued between the government troops and about 40 guerrillas positioned on both sides of the road. Rebels killed five soldiers and their officer, plus four militiamen. Three soldiers and one militiaman were wounded.

The ambush was the most daring and bloody operation staged by the rebels since they withdrew from peace talks with the government in May.

At Armed Forces of the Philippines headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo, AFP chief General Angelo Reyes said he did not know whether there were any rebel losses. The rebels took all the firearms of the soldiers before fleeing, according to initial reports.

The slain soldiers were led by 2nd Lt. Socrates Que, a member of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class 1998.

The ambush occurred in sitio Kalubian, barangay Catalina, Catigdian town, as Que and his team were about to reinforce troops of the 701st SFC in Barangay Talustusan, Bililihan town who were earlier harassed by another band of rebels at 6:30 a.m. yesterday.

Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Angelo Reyes said the rebels launched the attack because the government and the military in Bohol "are scoring heavily on their anti-insurgency campaign, and that (ambush) is their way of retaliating against the soldiers."

Reyes said he has ordered Army Maj. Gen. Santos Gabison, chief of the AFP's Visayas Commadn (Viscom) to deploy helicopter gunships to back up the pursuing soldiers.