MANILA: Communist rebels waging one of Asia's longest running insurgencies seized dozens of prospectors in a remote Philippine gold rush site and used them as "human shields" against pursuing troops, a military official said Sunday.
About 80 members of the New People's Army (NPA) "prevented" 39 miners, including four children, from leaving the mining site in Compostela Valley Saturday to stop troops from advancing and capturing them, regional army chief Lieutenant Colonel Michael Logico told AFP.
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