2 soldiers hurt in NCotabato clash with NPAs

NORTH COTABATO - Two soldiers were badly injured Sunday when communist rebels set off a roadside bomb while escaping after a 30-minute firefight with government troops in a hinterland district in Arakan town in the province.

1Lt. Nash Sema, civil-military operations officer of the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion, identified the injured soldiers as Pfc. Oliver Magbanua, and Cpl. Abdullah Camsa, who sustained shrapnel wounds in different parts of their bodies.

Magbanua and Camsa, both of the 57th IB, and their companions were on their way to Barangay Kabalantian in Arakan to check on the reported sightings by farmers of a band of New People’s Army guerrillas in the area, preparing to attack farming enclaves.

Sema said the NPAs opened fire first on the patrolling soldiers, provoking a running gunbattle, which waned only when the NPAs ran out of ammunition, forcing them to escape to the boundary of Bukidnon and North Cotabato carrying their wounded comrades.

"We have been receiving information relayed by villagers that several NPAs were wounded in the encounter, but we don't have confirmation yet from local informants. These reports are still raw, unverified," Sema said.

The fleeing NPAs managed to plant an improvised explosive along one of the farm trails leading to their escape route, which they set off using a battery-operated blasting mechanism as pursuing 57th IB combatants came close.

Lt.Col. Nilo Vinluan, 57th IB commanding officer, said soldiers are still clearing from roadside explosives other farm trails near the encounter site.

“These NPAs are known for planting explosives that can kill innocent civilians as retaliation for the losses they incur whenever they figure in encounters with government forces,” Vinluan said.

Vinluan said his two subordinates injured in the IED explosion are now confined in a hospital, undergoing medication.