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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Fierce fighting
erupted Thursday afternoon between Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
rebels and government troops on Basilan Island in southern
Philippines.
The MILF, which is currently
negotiating peace with Manila, accused the soldiers of attacking its
forces working on their farms in the village of Baguindan in
Tipo-Tipo town. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but
the MILF described the fighting as fierce.
“Fighting is raging in Basilan,
and soldiers are attacking our positions in the province,”
Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator, told The Manila Times.
He said the attack sparked the
fighting in the town, a known stronghold of the MILF under rebel
leader Hamza Sapanton.
The Philippine Marines chief,
Gen. Mohammad Dolorfino, said the rebels swooped down on the
soldiers securing a 40-kilometer road project in Tipo-Tipo and this
triggered the fighting.
“It was the rebels who first
attacked our security forces, and the troops only retaliated, but
the fighting was not as serious as what the MILF claimed. There were
exchanges of sniper fire between our troops and the rebels and we
have no reports of casualties,” Dolorfino added.
The fighting erupted after
Malaysian truce observers pulled out last week in Basilan and
Zamboanga City. The withdrawal had raised fears that resumption of
peace talks between Manila and the MILF will have to wait longer.
The negotiations collapsed last year over MILF demands for a
separate homeland, or “ancestral domain.”
The MILF is the country’s
largest Muslim rebel group fighting for independence in Mindanao in
southern Philippines. It has repeatedly warned that fighting could
erupt if Malaysia pulls out its ceasefire monitors.
Last year, MILF rebels killed and
wounded dozens of Philippine Marines in fierce clashes in Basilan.
They ambushed the soldiers, who had supposedly strayed into an MILF
territory in Al-Barka town. Ten soldiers were beheaded in the
fighting.
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