Communist guerrillas have killed three army soldiers in an ambush the Philippine military condemned Sunday, accusing them of using civilian houses as a cover in the attack. A government militiaman also was wounded in Friday's attack by New People's Army guerrillas in the village of Barakatan in southern Davao city, said regional army spokesman Capt. Emmanuel Garcia. Outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the military to end the communist insurgency, one of Asia's longest, by the end of her term next month, but the rebels have dismissed the deadline as propaganda. Peace talks between the rebels and the government brokered by Norway collapsed in 2004 after the rebels accused Arroyo's administration of instigating their inclusion on US and European terrorist blacklists. “Once again the people witnessed the spiteful insensitivity and utter disregard for human lives by the New People's Army,” Garcia said, adding that the attackers opened fire from behind villagers' houses. Government troops were hunting down the guerrillas responsible for the attack and the military has deployed more troops in the remote mountainous region amid a series of rebel assaults. At least six people, including four soldiers and two election officers, were killed in a rebel attack early this month near Maragusan town in nearby Compostela Valley province. Last week, the rebels abducted three soldiers and a militiaman also in Compostela Valley, Garcia said. The rebels have earlier freed a Philippine town mayor and his four military and police escorts after 12 days of jungle captivity in Davao Oriental province, also in the south, following negotiations with local officials, police said. The guerrillas say they are fighting to set up a Marxist state. After reaching their peak strength during Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship that ended in 1986, they failed to come to terms with a new democratic government, blaming it for failing to address social divisions and abject poverty. Their ranks have thinned to about 4,000 from more than 25,000 in the mid-1980s because of battle setbacks, surrenders and factionalism.
