NAGA CITY—Suspected communist rebels attacked a mobile military detachment in a coastal town in Camarines Sur Saturday afternoon and killed one soldier, an Army official said.

Major Harold Cabunoc, spokesperson of the 9th Infantry Division based in Camp Elias Angeles in Pili, Camarines Sur, said the alleged rebels attacked the military detachment in Barangay Bicalen, Presentacion town, at about 5:50 p.m. and shot and killed Private First Class Alvin Arias.

The mobile military detachment houses soldiers guarding a government project in the area, which Cabunoc did not identify.

“Arias sustained gunshot wounds in the chest causing his instant death,” Cabunoc quoted Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Cruz, commander of the 42nd Infantry Battalion, as saying.

The military through the 42nd Infantry Battalion immediately sent soldiers to pursue the assailants.Jonas Cabiles Soltes, Inquirer Southern Luzon