Soldiers prepare for NPA retaliation after bungled attack

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - The military is bracing up for possible retaliations by the New People’s Army (NPA) following its bungled attack at dawn Thursday of an Army detachment in Tulunan town that left four rebels wounded.

Some 50 NPA members belonging to the Front 72 first surrounded the joint Army-militia detachment in Barangay Paraiso in Tulunan and opened fire with assault rifles, but failed to breach through its fences when soldiers and militiamen returned fire.

The government combatants assigned at the detachment managed to maneuver to the left and right flanks of the attackers, wounding four of them in the ensuing firefight.

Captain Tony Bulao, spokesman of the Army’s 602nd Brigade, said the soldiers and militiamen guarding the detachment had prevented the rebels from closing in using assault rifles and shoulder-fire 40 MM grenades.

Barangay folks have confirmed that four NPA members were wounded in the incident.

Bulao, however, said they do not have actual body count of enemy casualties.

Bulao said units of the 602nd Brigade in areas where the NPA operates have been ordered to guard against possible retaliations by rebel groups.

The bungled attempt by the NPA to take over the detachment in Tulunan came about a week after combatants of the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion seized improvised explosives in a raid at a hideout of rebels fabricating roadside bombs in Barangay New Sebu in President Roxas town, also in North Cotabato.