Communist rebels triggered a land mine and opened fire on a Philippine army unit in an ambush that killed six soldiers in the country's troubled south, a military spokesman said Saturday. Maj. Randolph Cabangbang said at least 30 New People's Army guerrillas attacked the soldiers Friday as they were on their way to a remote, rebel-influenced village in Compostela Valley province on Mindanao island. The rebels manually triggered the U.S.-made claymore mine as the soldiers hiked past on a narrow mountain trail and then opened fire, he said. Cabangbang said those who died, including a lieutenant, were part of a 14-man team sent to talk to villagers about a planned military medical mission next month. “They (the soldiers) were able to fire back, but unfortunately six were killed,” he said. Two other soldiers were wounded. It was one of the highest military casualties in a single encounter with communist rebels in recent months. Cabangbang said an entire brigade, about 1,000 men, was pursuing the guerrillas. The ambushed soldiers were not familiar with the terrain because they were deployed to the province only two months earlier, he said.
