NPAs attack Army command post in North Cotabato

NORTH Cotabato, Philippines - Communist rebels blasted a fragmentation grenade at an Army command post in Makilala town on Tuesday night, a day after soldiers hoisted the Philippine Flag on a guerilla enclave that they overran after a two-hour offensive.

Army spokesman 1Lt. Nash Sema said the grenade landed and went off near the headquarters of the Golf Company of the 38th Infantry Battalion.

Sema said the 38th Infantry Battalion, through the local members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit, has also been operating against the New People’s Army in North Cotabato.

The 38th IB’s contingent in Makilala, which is under the 6th Infantry Division in Maguindanao and the 57th IB, a component unit of the Army’s 10th Division, are supporting each other in protecting the province from NPAs.

Sema, quoting witnesses, said a group of men riding a multi-cab vehicle was responsible for the grenade attack.

No one was reported killed or injured in the explosion, but the incident triggered panic in the area.

The bombers escaped towards the town proper of Makilala riding their vehicle.

The grenade attack was preceded by the 57th IB’s liberation last Sunday from NPA occupation of a fortified guerilla camp in Barangay Manobo in Magpet municipality, also in North Cotabato, after a two-hour firefight.

Soldiers hoisted the Philippine Flag at the center of the NPA camp, where the group had reportedly trained more than a hundred child combatants in the past six months.

The rebels that occupied the camp also allegedly fabricated powerful home-made explosives used in more than a dozen roadside bombings in the province last year.