Suspected communist guerrillas have killed four unarmed, off-duty soldiers in the southern Philippines in the latest flare-up of the 43-year insurgency, military officials said on Monday.
At least 10 suspected New People’s Army guerrillas opened fire with M16 rifles on the soldiers in the rural outskirts of Davao city late on Sunday afternoon, initially killing three soldiers, regional military spokeswoman Major Rosa Maria Cristina Manuel said.
The rebels dragged another soldier to a rice field and fatally shot him. Troops found his body on Monday, she said.
“Army soldiers were deployed to rescue him because we thought they would just hold him. But they apparently executed him in the field,” Manuel told reporters by telephone.
The soldiers were travelling on motorcycles on the way back to camp from a public market when they were attacked, she said.
The attack was staged in Davao city’s Paquibato district in an impoverished region where the Maoist guerrillas have been most active and lethal in recent years.