Philippine soldiers killed 16 communist rebels during a raid on a suspected guerilla hideout in the central Philippines where dozens of high-powered firearms were also recovered, the army said on Monday.
Government troops received information from the community about the presence of "terrorists in their bomb-making hideout" in the area, said Major Reynaldo Aragones, an army spokesman in the central Philippines.
"The firefight was really intense, that is why we delivered indirect fire (artillery) support and air asset support," said Aragones.
President Rodrigo Duterte's government has stepped up efforts to crush a Maoist-led rebellion, one of the world’s longest-running insurgencies, which has killed more than 40,000 people. Duterte's vaunted peace effort has repeatedly been derailed and he has each time promised to destroy the movement.
In March, he ordered police and military to "kill" communist rebels and "ignore human rights", drawing condemnation from activists.
Human rights groups and Duterte's opponents say his administration and the military has gone further by entrenching a practice of "red tagging", or accusing rivals or critics of supporting or joining rebels, as a pretext to silence, arrest or even kill them. The government denies that. At its peak, the New People's Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, had 25,000 armed fighters, but now has about 3,000, the military has said.
Newly appointed military chief Lieutenant General Jose Faustino has directed military units to deal with the communist insurgency before the end of the year.