ZAMBOANGA CITY, 15 December 2003 — Fighting has erupted between government troops and separatist forces in the southern Philippines, as a small team of Malaysian truce observers cancelled their trip to the troubled region, military and separatist officials said yesterday.

Eid Kabalu, spokesman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said their forces have killed at least a dozen government soldiers in two days of fierce fighting.

The military also said a gunbattle was raging yesterday in Datu Piang town of Maguindanao province, where security forces had been pursuing a band of gunmen, who kidnapped a wealthy car dealer Norman Sia.

Kabalu accused government troops of violating a standing cease-fire agreement by attacking rebel positions in the guise of pursuing members of the Pentagon kidnap gang.

“MILF fighters killed nine soldiers on Saturday and three more yesterday when security forces attacked our positions again,” Kabalu told the Arab News.

He said 9 of the military fatalities were on board a speedboat that rebel fighters sank with a rocket-propelled grenade along the Datu Piang river. The boat was reportedly carrying reinforcements. The MILF said it has suffered no casualties in the fighting.

The military laughed off Kabalu’s claims. “That is a propaganda. No government soldiers were killed in the fighting and troops are pursuing kidnappers,” Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said in a separate interview yesterday night.

A statement faxed by the military’s Southern Command to Arab News yesterday said one soldier was wounded in the fighting Saturday and said security forces clashed with about 50 “lawless elements,” a military term that usually refers to the MILF.

A Malaysian security official said an advance eight-man truce observer team, which is scheduled to arrive Monday in Manila, postponed its trip until early January for still unknown reasons.

Kabalu said government OV-10 bombers pounded MILF strongholds in the hinterlands of Datu Piang and that soldiers torched at least a dozen thatched houses owned by Muslim farmers.

There were no immediate reports of civilian casualties.

Kabaly said tension was running high yesterday as more troops have been deployed by the military to fight the MILF. The fighting only stopped when security forces retreated later in the day, he added.

“The Philippine soldiers failed to dislodged MILF fighters in Datu Piang and they will fail again and again because we will not let them win this war. The MILF is ready to defend its territories,” Kabalu said.

It was not immediately known if the fighting would affect the peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF, which is fighting for independence in the southern region.

On Thursday, two Philippine Air Force helicopters came under fire while tracking down the 24-year old Sia, who was kidnapped Dec. 8 in Maguindanao province.

The military said both helicopters, carrying senior army officials, were hit while flying over the hinterland village of Tugal in Talitay town near Datu Piang. No passengers were injured or killed in the attacks.

Sia, a nephew of wealthy Chinese hardware store owner Ty Ding Uy, is believed being held by members of the Pentagon gang, blamed for the spate of kidnappings of foreigners and wealthy traders in the southern Philippines. The group is reportedly composed mostly of renegade members of the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which has signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996.

Philippine authorities have linked the MILF to the Al-Qaeda and the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for the series of bombings since 2000 in the Philippines and Indonesia. The rebel group had denied any links with either groups.