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[av_heading heading=’ ‘REBELS’ VS COPS 3 hurt in Cauayan shootout ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RANIE AZUE
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Wednesday, October 4, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) ambushed police officers yesterday along a national highway in Sitio Buta, Barangay Caliling, Cauayan, Negros Occidental. Three civilians were wounded.
Five officers were responding on board a police vehicle to a robbery alarm when the suspected rebels, who positioned themselves on the hills, attacked them at around 1 p.m.
The cops and the suspected rebels exchanged gunshots for almost 15 to 30 minutes, police said.
The rebels fled after soldiers from the 1st Negros Island Geographical Battalion (1NIGB) of the Philippine Army responded to the area along with V-150 armored personnel.
Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tumnog, 1NIGB commanding officer, believed that the suspected NPA members were targeting the Cauayan policemen.
The 48-year-old Karl Christer Arvidson and Juliana Eeiko Palmero, 42, both Swedish, and their Filipino driver Jason Tumayao were wounded in the attack.
They were on board an Isuzu Crosswind trailing the police vehicle before the shootout.
Arvidson was hit on the left wrist while Palmero on the left shoulder, Tumnog said.
Tumayoa, on the other hand, sustained gunshot wounds on the left side of the face, stomach and left thigh.
They were rushed to the Isio District Hospital in Cauayan and were in a stable condition, police said.
The incident was similar to the ambush that happened on July 21 in Guihulngan City, which resulted to the death of six policemen – including then Guihulngan police chief Superintendent Arnel Arpon – and a civilian, according to Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo) director Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Castil.
Castil believed that the attack was staged by the NPA.
Nocppo and the Philippine Army were conducting a hot pursuit operation against the suspects./PN
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