Soldier killed in encounter with NPA

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao ,Philippines  – Communist rebels killed a soldier and wounded another as they tried to overrun an Army detachment in a remote area in Makilala, North Cotabato yesterday.

Col. Modesto Asto, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said about a hundred guerillas of the New People’s Army surrounded the detachment of the 6th ID’s Reconnaissance Company then opened fire with assault rifles.

Asto said the soldiers manning the detachment engaged their attackers in an hour-long battle, wounding at least five of them. “There were heavy stains of blood in the escape route of the NPAs,” he said.