Philippine rebels behead 10 soldiers
Pastor Dale Morgan
Philippine rebels behead 10 soldiers*
Ian MacKinnon, south-east Asia correspondent
Wednesday July 11, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Islamic separatist rebels in the Philippines have killed 14 soldiers,
beheading 10 of them, in a pitched battle with troops searching for an
Italian priest kidnapped a month ago.
The soldiers' bodies were recovered on the southern island of Basilan
today after the bloodiest fighting in months.
Leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said its fighters
clashed with the troops after they entered territory under its control
in contravention of a 2003 ceasefire.
A military spokesman said the soldiers entered the area after
intelligence reports that the Catholic clergyman Giancarlo Bossi had
been moved there from the mainland.
They blamed the fighting on al-Qaida linked Abu Sayyaf insurgents, whose
grim calling card is the decapitation of its victims.
About 80 soliders were embroiled in the fierce eight-hour clash with up
to 300 militants near the town of Tipo-Tipo. Four rebels were killed and
another seven wounded.
The chief negotiator for the 12,000-strong MILF, Mohagher Iqbal, said
his group had cut ties with Abu Sayyaf and denied any fighters had been
given shelter in the area.
Mr Iqbal also said the clash could have been avoided if the military had
coordinated with the insurgents. MILF, the Philippines main rebel group,
is involved in peace talks with the government and has deployed fighters
to help to find the priest.
Despite pinning the blame for the fighting on the army, Mr Iqbal said
the clash would not deter MILF from continuing its peace negotiations
with the authorities in Manila.
Fr Bossi, 57, a missionary from Milan who moved to the Philippines a
decade ago, was snatched by heavily-armed gunmen on June 10 just after
he said Mass at his Payao parish on the southern Zamboanga peninsula.
The government initially blamed Abu Sayyaf or renegade MILF militants
for the kidnapping. However, the Roman Catholic news agency AsiaNews
said criminal gangs were probably responsible for the abduction.
"The theory that Abu Sayyaf is behind the abduction of Fr Giancarlo
Bossi does not hold water," the news agency said. "Rather, from what we
know, he is being held hostage by a gang of criminals."