Manila
Fighting between government troops and Islamic militants in southern
Philippines has left 57 people dead and forced thousands of
civilians to flee their homes, officials said Friday.
Major Eugene Batara, a regional military spokesman, said 25 soldiers
were killed Thursday in clashes with Abu Sayyaf rebels and Moro
National Liberation Front (MNLF) guerrillas in Indanan and Maimbung
towns on Jolo island, 1,000 km south of Manila.
A civilian boy and 31 guerrillas were also killed in the fighting,
he added.
Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro, the military's information
chief, said the death toll in Thursday's fighting was the "biggest
single-day casualty so far in recent years".
Due to the hostilities, Bacarro said the military was dispatching
two more army battalions or 1,000 additional soldiers to Jolo to
augment the government forces there.
There are currently four army battalions and four marine battalions,
he said.
The fighting erupted when Abu Sayyaf rebels and MNLF fighters
ambushed a group of soldiers on their way to the public market on
the border of Indanan and Maimbung. Nine soldiers were killed on the
spot while another died while being treated in hospital.
Later Thursday, another group of soldiers clashed with Abu Sayyaf
and MNLF rebels in Maimbung, resulting in the death of another 15
soldiers and the civilian, Batara said.
An MNLF official confirmed that some members of the rebel group,
which signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996, were
engaged in the fighting.
Hatimil Hassan, an MNLF deputy chairman, said rebel fighters
attacked the soldiers in retaliation for the killing of three
comrades and a commander in a clash with troops Wednesday.
"It was in retaliation for the death of Commander Jilih and his
followers," he said. "The military initiated the attacks."
The hostilities have forced more than 4,300 people to flee their
homes in the affected towns, said Bai Racma Imam, an official with
the local social welfare department.
"We are afraid that the fighting will escalate in other towns," she
said. "There is a possibility also that the current figures of
displaced people will balloon due to the ongoing fighting."
Imam appealed for blankets, food supplies and medicines for the
displaced residents.
Amid fears that the fighting would worsen, the MNLF Friday urged the
Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to intervene in the
hostilities.
"We informed the OIC of the current situation through emails and fax
direct to Jeddah," he said. "We requested them to intervene in the
fighting that may escalate in other municipalities."
"We are optimistic that the OIC will respond to our appeal," he
added. "We are waiting for their response."
While the MNLF signed a peace pact with the government, thousands of
its members continue to carry weapons and maintain camps in the
southern region of Mindanao.
Some disgruntled members and officials have also expressed
dissatisfaction over the government's failure to implement some key
provisions of the 10-year-old peace accord, especially those aimed
at developing Muslim areas in Mindanao.
A tripartite meeting among representatives of the OIC, which
brokered the peace pact, the Philippine government, and the MNLF to
assess the implementation of the agreement has been postponed
several times.
The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for some of the worst terrorist
attacks in the Philippines. It is believed to be working with two
top militants with the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah regional
terrorist group who are hiding in Mindanao.
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