MANILA, Philippines - Three suspected New People's Army (NPA) rebels were killed following a clash with government security forces Thursday in Camarines Sur province, a military spokesman said.
About 10 a.m., combined elements of the 42nd Infantry Battalion and the 504th Provincial Police Mobile Group engaged an undetermined number of insurgents at Sitio Talicitc, Cawayan village in Tinambac town, said Armed Forces information chief Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres.
Torres said the firefight lasted for 30 minutes which resulted in the killing of three rebels and the recovery of three M16 rifles.
No government casualty was reported in the said incident, Torres said.
The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) which has been waging a Maoist guerrilla campaign in the countryside for nearly four decades.
Talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), the umbrella organization of the mainstream communist movement in the Philippines have been stalled since August 2004.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered government forces to crush the communist insurgency by the time she ends her term in June 2010. - GMANews.TV