Alwaght-Five Filipino soldiers have been killed and six others injured in an ambush by communist rebels in the northern Ilocos Sur Province of the East Asian state, army officials say, as Press TV reported .
The troops were returning to their headquarters in a convoy late Thursday when the New People's Army guerrillas went on a shooting spree in Quirino township, 285 kilometers south of the Philippine’s capital, Manila, Captain Mark Anthony Ruelos of the 7th Infantry Division said on Friday .
Armed forces spokesperson, Colonel Restituto Padilla, said the troops fought back but their counterattacks remained futile because the rebels used civilians as human shields .
The army officials said the guerrillas also opened fire on medical staff who were trying to retrieve the bodies of dead soldiers .
Padilla said the rebels violated international law by using civilians as human shield .
Communist rebels have been fighting the Philippine government since the late 1960s .
Peace talks between the government and rebels were last stalled in 2011 after the government refused to release jailed rebel leaders .
The military estimates that about 4,000 communist rebels are carrying out hit-and-run attacks against government forces in the country .
The 45-year-old civil war in the Philippines is one of the longest civil wars in Asia .
