CITY OF ILAGAN—A soldier and a suspected communist rebel were killed on Thursday when a group from the Army’s 95th Infantry Battalion clashed with members of the New People’s Army (NPA) in remote Barangay Sindon Bayabo here.
About 40 suspected rebels had just accosted members of an environmental task force, whom they accused of conducting extortion activities, when soldiers encountered them at 5 a.m., according to Capt. Noriel Tayaban, officer in charge of the 5th Infantry Division’s public affairs office.
Tayaban said the Army launched air strikes against the rebels after the Reynaldo Piñon Command of the NPA Central Isabela Front claimed responsibility for disarming members of the Task Force Kalikasan, who were manning a checkpoint at Sindon Bayabo on Wednesday. —VILLAMOR VISAYA JR.