ZAMBOANGA CITY , 21 November 2003 — The country’s largest armed separatist Muslim group yesterday said it will consider the presence of US forces in its strongholds in the southern Philippines a hostile act that it will not take sitting down.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) issued the warning after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s announcement that US troops may help local troops fight armed Islamic militants on the island of Mindanao.

President Arroyo made the announcement at a pro-government rally in North Cotabato province in central Mindanao after meeting with US Pacific Command chief Admiral Thomas Fargo on Wednesday.

Philippine and US authorities have previously linked the MILF to the Al-Qaeda terror network and its Southeast Asian counterpart, the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah, although rebel leaders strongly denied the accusations.

“I want (North Cotabato) Governor Manny Pi?ol to talk to him (Adm. Thomas Fargo) about the holding of Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) war games in Central Mindanao because I know Governor Pi?ol is advocating (it),” Arroyo, a staunch Southeast Asian ally of US President George W. Bush’s war on terror, told a crowd of about 4,000 mostly Christian farmers in the rally.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said his group and many Muslims are opposing the holding of the anti-terror warfare exercise in Central Mindanao because it could endanger the peace talks if security forces operate inside MILF strongholds or attack their positions. “The MILF is against this, but we cannot do anything about it because of the peace talks with the Philippine government,” Kabalu told Arab News by phone from his hideout in Central Mindanao.

But Kabalu warned that rebel forces would strike back if government or US troops attack MILF strongholds in the guise of running against the Abu Sayyaf or the Jemaah Islamiyah.“The MILF is committed to resolving the Mindanao problems. The danger here is the armed confrontation between the MILF and the anti-terror forces. We are for peace, but should they invite us to war, we will face them until death,” he said.

President Arroyo last month declared the Jemaah Islamiyah as the top national security threat in the Philippines, which is also fighting Muslim and communist rebellions.

The Philippines and the United States last year held anti-terror warfare training in Basilan Island, involving more than 3,000 troops from both countries. The US Pacific Command earlier said it would hold next year war games in Jolo Island, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, after a small joint RP-US training exercise called Project Bayanihan in Zamboanga City ends in December.

President Arroyo met this week with Cofer Black, the US State Department’s anti-terrorism coordinator, who expressed concern over the activities across Southeast Asia of the Jemaah Islamiyah, tagged as behind the deadly Bali bombing last year.

A series of police raids in the central Mindanao last month led to the arrest of a top Indonesian JI operative, Taufiq Rifki, and the discovery of a suspected hideout and bomb-making equipment.

“There are some JI operatives who are still in the country and they are being hunted by the government. We are keeping them on the run so they cannot consolidate to plot out large-scale terrorist actions.” Arroyo said. “These JI cells are at times given free passage by low-level armed groups and we have asked the MILF leadership to ostracize and isolate the terrorists.”

The MILF has publicly denied any links with the JI or Al-Qaeda network. The Philippines implicated the MILF to the spate of terror attacks in the south the past year, but rebel leaders had strongly denied all allegations.