Philippines: 8 policemen killed and 7 others hurt in New People’s Army (NPA) rebels ambush in Cagayan
Still reeling from a bloody encounter with the Abu Sayyaf group in the south that claimed the lives of seven Marine soldiers over the weekend, the government’s law enforcers suffered another major blow Monday with the killing of eight Special Action Force (SAF) policemen in a guerrilla ambush in the northern province of Cagayan.
Seven other members of the Philippine National Police’s elite SAF team were wounded in an ambush by communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels early Monday.
Just two days earlier, on Saturday, seven Philippine Marines were killed in a clash with Abu Sayyaf bandits in Patikul town in Sulu. Officials are still trying to determine if the incident was an “operational miscalculation” or a close encounter.
The ambush in Cagayan occurred at 8:30 a.m. at Capagaran village in Allacapan municipality, about two kilometers from the town’s police station, according to an initial report from the Cagayan provincial police.