MANILA — Two soldiers were killed and five others went missing in the latest clashes between government troops and communist rebels, military officials said Sunday.

A New People’s Army (NPA) rebel sniper fatally shot one of several soldiers guarding a government road project in a remote village in Presentacion town, Camarines Sur on Saturday, said Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Cruz.

He said 12 soldiers were deployed to pursue the attackers but were ambushed by the rebels late Saturday in another village in Presentacion.

Seven soldiers, three of them wounded by grenades and rifle fire, managed to return to camp, but the remaining five went missing, regional Army spokesman Major Harold Cabunoc said.

Villagers have reported seeing the bodies of four of the missing soldiers at the battle scene in the hinterland of Presentacion, and troops aboard two Huey helicopters have been sent to look for the soldiers, Cabunoc said.

The fifth soldier has sent a mobile phone message to his commander, saying he was hiding in a forest near the scene of the clash. Troops were also searching for him, Cabunoc added.

Also on Saturday, a soldier was killed while seven others were wounded by a landmine blast in a separate fight in the outskirts of Davao City, regional military spokesman Captain Emmanuel Garcia said.

Killed was Private First Class Melencio Dalisay of the Army’s 5th Scout Ranger Company.

The identities of the wounded soldiers, who are also from the Army’s 5th Scout Ranger Company, were not immediately available as of this posting Sunday.

The communist rebels apparently planted mines to block the advance of government troops that they had fought twice earlier Saturday, Garcia said.

He said three armed battles with the NPA on that day left the rebel group scurrying.

“Troops of the 5th Scout Ranger Company clashed with NPA terrorists in Sitio Mitondo at 9:30 a.m. and after 15 minutes, soldiers from the 69th Infantry Battalion engaged another group of terrorists four kilometers away at Sitio Mamaon. In both instances, the NPAs fled and concealed themselves but just like the previous encounters; people informed our troops of their whereabouts,” Garcia said.

Garcia said the continued encounter with the armed group has left them cornered. He said troops of the 5th Scout Ranger Company clashed with the rebel group around 1:45 p.m. Saturday in Sitio Mitondo.

“Our troops, however, suffered casualties due to the improvised explosive device the terrorist blew up along the way,” Garcia said.

He said the NPA has also suffered casualties in the series of clashes but repeatedly denied them as “their standard lie to protect an image of strength.”

As in the past, Garcia said the NPA rebel group burry its men in shallow graves in the mountains and deny them of a decent burial rites.

Garcia criticized the planting of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by the rebels, saying it showed the NPA’s treacherous method as a terrorist organization.

“It is an utter disregard to the safety of non-combatants to place IEDs along the way where ordinary people might get hurt,” he said.

The military said the NPA ranks have thinned to about 4,000 from more than 25,000 in the mid-1980s because of battle setbacks, surrenders and factionalism.

Peace talks between the rebels and the government brokered by Norway collapsed in 2004 after the rebels accused President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration of instigating their inclusion on US and European terrorist blacklists.
(AP/AD of Sun.Star SuperBalita Davao/Bong Garcia/Sunnex)