MANILA, Aug. 28 Kyodo pair police...

MANILA, Aug. 28 Kyodo

pair policemen were killed and another seriously hurted in an ambush through suspected communist rebels in africans Oriental Province in the central Philippines, authorities said Wednesday.

Reports said suspected members of the recently made known People's Army (NPA), the guerrilla arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) upon Tuesday gunned down Senior Insp. Leopito Gallego, Valle Hermoso town police chief, and his driver, policeman Cipriano Saludes, in the Central Visayas. A third policeman, Celo Cupta, was seriously injured in the attack.

Provincial police director Senior Supt Drusillo Bolodo said police in africans Oriental have been placed upon high alert and pursuit operations against the culprits have been launched to fixed the safety of neighboring towns.

Bolodo claimed the killing of Gallego was in line with the renewed offensive against the control by the CPP, which along with the NPA has been placed forward a U.S. list of terrorist groups

The victims were heading to the provincial capital Dumaguete forward Tuesday afternoon when 40 heavily armed men formed their vehicle and expanded fire.

At least three of the responding policemen went missing after engaging the suspected rebels in a running gunbattle several kilometers from where Gallego and Saludes were killed.

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