ZAMBOANGA CITY: Muslim rebels on Friday accused the Philippine military of attacking them near Ma-guindanao province where a three-year old boy was killed and six other civilians were wounded in mortar fires. Von Al-Haq, a spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said government troops fired mortars on the Moro group targets in Datu Piang town in Maguindanao, but one of the missiles hit a civilian area and killed a boy and wounded six other children.

“Government troops fired mortars on MILF targets, but it landed on a civilian area and killed a 3-year-old boy. Six other children were wounded in that attack,” the MILF spokesman said.

Al-Haq said the military attack on Thursday was triggered by fighting between two Muslim clans after the military sided with one of the clan leaders. “It was a clan war, but the military sided with one leader and that started it all. The other clan leader had relatives in the MILF and fighting flared up,” he said.

However, the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command on Friday blamed the rebel forces for the killing of the boy, saying some 50 gunmen attacked the members of the 29th Infantry Battalion.

Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, a regional Army spokesman, said the gunmen fired two rounds of mortar bombs hitting a village that killed the boy and wounded six others.

There were no reports of military or rebel casualties in the latest fighting.

Last week, the Moro group also accused the military of launching mortar attacks in the villages of Lagitan and Meti in Maguin-danao’s Datu Blah Sinsuat town.

Peace talks between the Moro group and Manila was suspended after former President Gloria Arroyo ended her term last month, but new Filipino leader Benigno Aquino 3rd said he would soon resume the negotiations with Muslim rebels in an effort to end bloody fighting in Mindanao.

The MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, is fighting for decades for self-determination.
AL JACINTO