Cotabato City, Philippines: The Philippines’ largest Muslim separatist rebel group yesterday called for the immediate resumption of peace talks with the government as the military claimed that at least 100 guerrillas were killed in three days of clashes.
Murad Ebrahim, chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said his group has already asked Malaysia — which has been brokering the peace talks — to convene the peace panels of the rebel group and the Philippine government.
“We have sent information to our facilitator two days ago but there is no response to date,” he told a press conference in a guerrilla camp outside the southern city of Cotabato, 930 km south of Manila.
Murad hinted that the MILF will intensify armed struggle if the hostilities in the southern region of Mindanao were not immediately contained.
“We will continue our struggle in whatever form,” he said.
Regional army spokesman Lt. Col. Julieto Ando said airstrikes and ground assaults would continue against MILF rebels in seven towns in Maguindanao province, 960 km south of Manila.
The offensive was aimed at flushing out two senior commanders of the MILF who led bloody attacks on several towns in the nearby provinces of North Cotabato, Sarangani, Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte, Ando said.
Ando said 24 soldiers were wounded since the offensive started on Wednesday.
More than 100 people were killed in the attacks and ensuing clashes with the military, while some 160,000 residents were displaced due to the hostilities.
