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Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Top rebel in Isabela dies in clash with soldiers
Five New People’s Army (NPA) guerillas, including a ranking renegade leader in Isabela province, and four soldiers were killed in separate clashes with government forces, the military reported Tuesday.
Brigadier General Alexander Yapching, commander of the Army’s 5th Infantry Division (ID), named the slain rebel leader only as Ka Owen, secretary of the Central Front under the Cagayan Regional Party Committee that operates in Isabela.
In a report to Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) Chief Romeo Tolentino, Yapching said Ka Owen was slain by elements of the 45th Infantry Battalion (IB) in Sindon Bayabao in Ilagan town, Isabela at around 3 p.m. last Sunday.
Ka Owen had just conducted “house-to-house extortion” when the Army soldiers engaged his group in a firefight that lasted for at least two hours. Ka Owen’s undetermined number of companions was able to escape.
Also recovered from the scene of the encounter were two M16 rifles, one M203 grenade launcher, one M14 rifle, and eight combat packs containing rebel documents and personal belongings of the insurgents.
In Mountain Province, four soldiers and two rebels died in another firefight in the outskirts of Besao town on Friday last week, according to Yapching. Authorities withheld the identities of the slain government troopers.
Yapching said troops from the Army’s 54th Infantry Battalion (IB) and 50th Special Rifle Company were on combat operations when they encountered the rebels.
In Abra, Yapching said a communist rebel died following another clash with elements of the 41st Infantry Battalion at the village of Uduliao in Sallapadan town last week. The troops recovered from the scene two rifles and a radio.
Meanwhile, Army spokesman Bartolome Bacarro reported that an unidentified rebel also died following a 20-minute skirmish with Army soldiers in the village of Aguid in Sagada town in Mountain Province on Monday.
Bacarro said the troops from the 54th IB were conducting security patrols in the area when they caught up with at least 50 fully-armed NPA guerillas at around 5:12 a.m., sparking the firefight.
Armed Forces Chief Generoso Senga said the campaign to cripple the insurgency problem in two years is “progressing”. (VR/Sunnex)
(July 12, 2006 issue)
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