Key rebel leader in Philippines killed, in decades old fight

By JIM GOMEZ
Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippines forces have killed a key rebel commander in one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies, in what the military described as a daring raid in the country’s remote southern region, but what guerrilla leaders claimed was an ambush. Jorge Madlos, who used the nom de guerre Ka Oris, was for many decades a leading figure and spokesman for the communist fighters in the southern Philippines’s mountainous hinterlands. Philippine Defense Minster on Monday described the rebel’s death as a major blow to the already-battered New People’s Army guerrilla group. The rebel group said in a statement it posted on websites linked with the group that Madlos was traveling unarmed to get medical treatment when government forces ambushed him.