Soldiers gun down 4 alleged NPAs

COTABATO CITY – Soldiers gunned down four alleged New People’s Army guerillas and wounded seven others in a four-hour running gunbattle at the border of Sultan Kudarat and Davao del Sur yesterday.

Senior Superintendent Suharto Tucao, director of the Sultan Kudarat provincial police, said the hostilities erupted when the NPAs opened fire at patrolling members of the Army’s 27th Infantry Battalion in Colum­bio town. Columbio, a hinterland town in Sultan Kudarat, is located in the border of the province with Davao del Sur. Tucao said the firefight waned only when the NPAs ran out of ammunition and fled to a nearby forested area, leaving behind their four dead companions.

Local officials in Columbio have confirmed that eight other NPAs, two of them women, were wounded in the ensuing firefight. The soldiers who figured in the firefight also recovered from the slain rebels two M-14 rifles and an Armalite.

Tucao said three soldiers were wounded in the firefight, now are undergoing medication.       – John Unson