MANILA, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- At least six leftist rebels have been killed during a series of law enforcement operations by Philippine military and police recently, a military spokesman said on Sunday.
Colonel Noel Detoyato, chief of the Public Affairs Office of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said the military and police launched a series of joint law enforcement operations in Negros Occidental province in the central Philippines from Thursday to Saturday, resulting in the killing of six New People's Army (NPA) rebels and the arrest of 24 others.
Detoyato said the joint military and police operations were aimed at serving arrest warrants to 103 target personalities who were involved in illegal drug activities in this area.
However, he said that operating teams found out that 30 of them were NPA regulars. NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which is found in 1968.
According to the military spokesman, during the law enforcement operations, six NPA rebels who resisted arrest and engaged the government troops and policeman in a shootout were killed. Nearly 65 firearms were confiscated.
The Philippine military said the NPA has an estimated 4,000 members. The rebels have been fighting the government since 1969 in one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies.
The Philippine government has been trying to forge peace with the leftist rebels since 1986 but the on-off talks have faltered many times in the past.
The Duterte administration has scrapped talks to solve the 50-year-old leftist insurgency and has declared a "full-scale war" against the leftist rebel group which has been trying to overthrow the government for five decades.
