Tuburan Outpost Attacked: 3 eating troops slain by rebels

Communist rebels in Cebu yesterday broke a three-year silence, killing at least three government soldiers in a sneak attack on a lonely military outpost in the hinterlands of Tuburan.

Tuburan police chief Crisanto Duque said the attack by about a dozen suspected members of the New People's Army took place while the soldiers, six of them, were having an early supper at 5:30 p.m.

Duque said police have already identified one of the fatalities but The Freeman is withholding the information pending official confirmation by the military.

The police officer said the military detachment is located in the mountain barangay of Sumon, some 20 kilometers inland from the Tuburan town proper.

Yesterday's attack was the first in three years by the rebels.

The last time a military detachment in Cebu was attacked was on December 12, 2002 when rebels swooped down on an outpost in barangay Carausan, Carmen, killing four troopers.

Elsewhere, the rebels were more active but met with far less success.

On March 5, 2003, two rebels, including then NPA Central Visayas spokesman Silvino " Ka Bino " Clamucha, were killed in an encounter in barangay Liboron, Catigbian, Bohol.

On March 14 this year, three rebels and a government soldier were killed in another Bohol encounter.

In the Tuburan attack yesterday, witnesses said at least two of the rebels were armed with armalite rifles while the rest had handguns.

Leah Mirayo, wife of one of the soldiers at the detachment, said the rebels quietly told civilians to flee just before they pounced.

She said she herself fled so that she has no way of knowing if her husband survived the attack of not.

The military has reportedly been active in the area lately, conducting Civilian Volunteer Organization seminars that probably angered the NPA.

Reinforcements from Asturias arrived hours later and swiftly pursued the killers.

Still Armed Forces Central Command spokesman Jefferson Umandam refused to confirm the incident, saying tactical operations was still ongoing.

Umandam suspects the attack was by the communist Central Visayas Regional Party Committee that is allegedly being led by Roy Erecre.

Tuburan is in the so-called mid-north area being secured by the 78th Infantry Battalion.

Umandam last week said all units have come under heightened security in the wake of exiled communist leader Joma Ma. Sison's call to for intensified attacks against government forces.