Hundreds flee as clashes erupt in Philippine south
Pastor Dale Morgan
Hundreds flee as clashes erupt in Philippine south*
12 Feb 2007 10:59:07 GMT
Source: Reuters
MANILA, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people have fled a village in the
southern Philippines after troops stormed a Muslim rebel base, hunting
for dozens of prisoners who escaped from jail earlier this month, the
rebels and officials said on Monday.
Tanks rolled into the remote village on the island of Mindanao as
soldiers shelled positions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF),
with 105mm howitzers, Mohaqher Iqbal, an official from the group said.
The MILF, the Philippines' largest Muslim separatist group, has a shaky
ceasefire with the government of the largely Catholic country.
There were no casualties reported but more than 200 families starting
fleeing their homes and farms before daybreak on Sunday when soldiers
launched an offensive in the area, Iqbal said.
"We're strongly protesting the indiscriminate use of force," said Iqbal,
who also heads the rebels' peace negotiating panel. "They're putting at
risk the innocent Muslim communities and threatening the peace process."
But the Philippine military denied targetting the MILF and said it was
pursuing a group of 50 prisoners who escaped from a local jail on
February 2.
"Our pursuit operations were not directed at them but against those who
escaped from the provincial jail in Kidapawan," army spokesman
Lieutenant-Colonel Julieto Ando said, adding soldiers had come under
heavy gunfire while approaching the village.
The government and the MILF are trying to revive peace talks stalled
since May 2006 due to differences over a proposed deal on territory in
the south.
But efforts have been complicated by intermittent clashes between the
rebels, soldiers and militias since January.
Iqbal said the rebels' ceasefire panel had filed an official protest,
asking the military to stop attacking rebel positions.
Separately, U.S-trained Philippine troops killed two militants of the
smaller but most violent Abu Sayyaf group during a 90-minute gun battle
in the jungles of Jolo island, also in the troubled south of the country.
Brigadier-General Reynaldo Mapagu said soldiers on a training mission
chanced upon a 40-member Abu Sayyaf group preparing for lunch.
"We didn't lose any soldier but we are believed to have inflicted more
casualties on their side," Mapagu told reporters in Manila.
Abu Sayyaf, suspected of close ties with al Qaeda and the regional
militant group Jemaah Islamiah, is blamed for the worst terror attack in
the Philippines, killing more than 100 people in the bombing of a
passenger ferry near Manila bay in Feb. 2004.