Manila, Philippines:
Philippine police say suspected communist guerrillas have burned a small plane used for aerial agricultural spraying in the south in their latest attack.
Police Inspector Napoleon Boiser says at least six New People's Army rebels disguised as policemen barged into a compound of the government-owned Philippine Agricultural Aviation Corp. late Saturday in far-flung Tubay town in Agusan del Norte province and disarmed two guards.
Boiser said Sunday that the gunmen identified themselves as communist rebels and then used aviation gas stored in the compound to burn a parked single-engine plane, a warehouse and an electric generator. The rebels took two shotguns before fleeing.
The rebels, who have been fighting since 1969 in one of Asia's longest-running Marxist insurgencies, have escalated attacks against agricultural plantations and mining companies in recent years.