[Straits Times] NINE communist rebels and one soldier were killed after the military raided a guerrilla camp in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, the army said, adding fighting was ongoing. Soldiers backed by two helicopter gunships clashed with gunmen from the communist New People's Army (NPA) around Valencia town on the violence-wracked southern island of Mindanao, spokesman Major Michelle Anayron told reporters.
The military was tipped off about the presence of the NPA camp near Valencia, prompting commanders to send five teams of soldiers to converge on the site where they found about 60 guerrillas hiding, Anayron said.
So far, the bodies of nine rebels, along with their rifles, have been recovered by the military, according to Anayron. The farming town of Valencia is in Bukidnon province and about 80 kilometres south of Cagayan de Oro, a major port city.
The military said in September that the communist rebellion had claimed more than 3,000 lives since 2001. This included over 500 civilians killed in crossfire during battles. In one of the deadliest reported clashes in recent years, 23 people died near a logging camp in another province on Mindanao last month. Eleven of the dead were communists, while the others were soldiers and security guards, the military said then.