NPAs kidnap soldier in Mindanao

Agence France-Presse | 11/03/2009 3:11 PM

MANILA - Communist insurgents kidnapped a soldier in a daring raid on an army detachment in the southern Philippines, the military said Tuesday.

The New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas, disguised as members of an elite army unit, swooped on the troops as dusk fell in a village near the town of Monkayo on Mindanao island Monday, regional army chief Major General Reynaldo Mapagu said.

"The NPA terrorists abducted Corporal Dominador Alegre of the Philippine army," he said, adding that the rebels overpowered and disarmed the soldiers, who were on their way out of the camp to offer prayers to their dead relatives on All Souls' Day.

"Corporal Alegre is still missing up to this time," Mapagu said.

The rebels also took 18 high-powered firearms from the armoury, but left the other soldiers unharmed. He said Alegre was the head of the detachment.

Alegre's abduction was the latest targeting the security forces. In January, the NPA seized three policemen, holding them for 83 days before they were released to the Red Cross. Three months later, they kidnapped a soldier and held him for three weeks.

The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been waging a Maoist rebellion since 1969.

Peace talks with the communists have been suspended since 2005, when the government refused to ask the European Union and the United States to remove the party and the armed wing from their foreign terrorist watchlists.

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