7 communist rebels shot dead north of Manila

Soldiers in the Philippines gunned down seven communist rebels in a fight north of Manila on Thursday, as government troops held on to their campaign to end the 40-year-old insurgency this year, an army spokesman said. Troops found about 30 New People’s Army guerrillas in the Bulacan province, leading to an hour long shootout that left seven dead, one of the highest fatalities among the rebels in recent weeks, Lt. Col. Arnulfo Burgos said.

Norwegian-brokered peace talks to end the 40-year-old Maoist insurgency have stopped since 2004, and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the military to quell the rebels by the time she steps down in June. Burgos said the military is confident that it can reduce the insurgency to insignificance in 2010, citing recent gains against the rebels. The number of rebels already went down from roughly 25,000 in the mid 1980′s to around 5,000 last year.

In December 2009 nine guerrillas and one soldier died in a southern province when troops assaulted a rebel camp. Police was checking if three of those killed in Thursday’s clash, including a girl, were minors, Burgos said. Two female university students in their early 20′s were among the rebels who got shot to death in recent clashes.

Soldiers recovered seven assault rifles and a grenade launcher. They have suffered no casualties, Burgos said. Local residents had tipped off troops to the presence of rebels in a village outside Bulacan’s Dona Remedios Trinidad township. A rebel spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment.