Two killed, two others kidnapped by leftist rebels in S. Philippines
Xinhua, September 30, 2015 Adjust font size:
Two people were killed and two were kidnapped in separate attacks by alleged leftist rebels in a southern Philippine province on Wednesday, police said.
A soldier and a civilian were killed while another soldier was able to escape when armed men believed to be New People's Army ( NPA) rebels ambushed them in a mining village in Pantukan town, in Mindanao's Compostela Valley province around Wednesday noon, said Senior Superintendent Albert Ferro, provincial police chief.
The victims were riding a motorcycle driven by the slain civilian when gunmen waylaid them in Kingking village, said Ferro, adding the soldiers belonging to the army's 71st Infantry Battalion, were on their way to the town center when attacked.
In Monkayo town, some 100 kilometers to the north, NPA insurgents stopped a motorcycle at a rebel roadblock and seized two soldier-passengers in Casoon village around 2:15 p.m., Ferro told Xinhua by text message.
The troops from the army's 25th Infantry Battalion were brought by their abductors to an unknown location, and a massive manhunt was now underway to locate and rescue them, the police official said.
The 4,000-strong NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been fighting a leftist insurgency in 60 Philippine provinces since 1969. Endi