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MANILA, Nov 20 (AFP): Communist rebels killed 10 security personnel and wounded more than 20 people in separate attacks in the Philippines, the military said Sunday.
New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas killed nine soldiers and wounded 20 people in an ambush on a military convoy in Calinog town on the central island of Panay late Saturday, said army spokesman Major Bartolome Bacarro.
The NPA fighters detonated a landmine and then fired on the army trucks, Bacarro said. An undetermined number of rebels were hit during the ensuing gunbattle, he said.
In a separate clash, a policeman was killed and three others wounded Saturday when they pursued a group of NPA rebels who had attacked a cellphone tower south of Manila, a military report said.
About 50 NPA guerrillas had disarmed the security guard at the Globe Telecommunications tower in Lucban town, Quezon province and then tried but failed to topple the tower with dynamite.
It was the 19th such NPA attack on Globe towers this year, apparently in retaliation for the company's refusal to pay the rebels' extortion demands.
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