One soldier and a young schoolgirl were injured on Tuesday when the military was attacked by Shining Path sharpshooters in Peru’s southern Cusco region, daily El Comercio reported.
The attack occurred around 1 p.m. on Tuesday in the village of Kepashiato, in the northern province of La Convencion.
Remnants of the Shining Path insurgency, hiding in jungle-covered mountains, attacked military personnel who have been using a local school as a base since April. The school houses elementary and high school classes for 300 pupils.
Jose Rios, the mayor of Echarate, which governs Kepashiato, has requested that the military move out of the school immediately and has offered the use of the district municipality facilities as their base.
“We warned them that this could happen,” if the military used the school, Rios said.
The area of the attack is where last month Shining Path remnants took 36 natural-gas workers hostage, resulting in a joint military and police operation to hunt down the splinter group.
Although the hostages were released without military-police intervention, the security personnel suffered a harsh blow as the Shining Path shot down a helicopter and killed nine military and police officers.
The heavily-armed Shining Path operates as protection for Peru’s growing cocaine trade.
