Communists activate urban death squad

Manila: A top security official yesterday warned that communist insurgents have activated its urban assassination squad, ahead of President Gloria Arroyo's July 28 presidential address.

In a press briefing, Major General Arsenio Arugay, the chief of armed forces National Capital Region (NCR) Command, said they have information that communist insurgents have reactivated their "Sparrow" units to conduct operations targeting Arroyo.

Arugay was apparently referring to communist Special Armed Partisan Units (SPARU) or "Sparrow" which was notorious during the mid 1980s until the early mid 1990s for urban assassination operations targeting mainly government and police officials. "The Sparrow are still around," Arugay said.

- With inputs fromRafael Juan