Troops capture Davao rebel camp

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Government troops captured a communist insurgents’ camp after a running gun battle in a rebel-infested village in Compostela Valley in Eastern Mindanao, the military reported yesterday.

There were reports of casualties on both sides but the troops seized explosive devices, following the encounter in the village of Lebanon, Montevista town last week.

The fighting erupted after the villagers reported the presence of New People’s Army (NPA) rebels conducting extortion activities in the area.

Reports from the 10th Infantry Division under Maj. Gen. Ernesto Boac showed that soldiers belonging to the 60th Infantry Battalion launched an offensive and engaged an undetermined number of rebels in a fierce but brief gunbattle.

"Intense ground attacks forced the rebels to abandon the camp," the 10th Army Division reported.

The rebels, believed to be under the NPA’s Red Warriors command, locally known as Pulang Bagani Command, were forced to abandon the camp.

The military said the camp was used as a training ground for new communist recruits in the area.

Boac reported that an advance command post of the 10th Army Division was established in Compostela Valley to address the presence of the NPA rebels, who have been waging more than three decades of insurgency for the establishment of a communist state.