ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines, 9 December 2002 — The military launched air strikes against Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) positions in the southern province of Maguindanao yesterday in the third day of fighting, military and separatist spokesmen said.
Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the MILF, said one of their fighters defending the area was killed and two others were wounded.
There were no report of casualties yet on the military, which reported one soldier killed and several injured during the first day of fighting.
“The military is using all sorts of bombs and rockets and mortars and cannons, but we will fight them off squarely on the ground,” Kabalu said by phone from his base in the south. He said a government attack helicopter also targeted civilian residential houses and a pumpboat full of civilians fleeing the violence.
Fighting erupted Friday after the military accused the rebels of harassing civilians in the area, leaving one soldier dead and five others injured.
Army spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando said MILF rebels were marshalling forces near Sultan Sa Barongis and attacked several villages, forcing the military to launch airstrikes using MG-520 attack helicopters.
“We will continue to strike until the MILF stop attacking us and innocent civilians,” Ando said.
Kabalu maintained that army soldiers started the trouble when Special Forces members intruded into the remote barangay of Langgapana in the guise of running after a kidnap for ransom group led by Tahir Alonto.
He accused the military of using its campaign against kidnap gangs as a pretense to enter MILF territories.
Aside from the death of a woman when the Special Forces men first came, he said, the soldiers also took away with them a 14-year-old boy named Mosaid Guiamelon.
“Until now his whereabouts remain unknown, but relatives have expressed fear that the boy might have been salvaged already by his captors,” he said.
Kabalu further accused army soldiers of stealing the working carabao of a local resident named Montawal Abdulsalam.
He claimed that the soldiers butchered the animal at their command post in the town of Sultan Kudarat.
The MILF claim could not be immediately verified with the local army command.
The 12,000-strong MILF is the largest Muslim rebel force in the Philippines, seeking to force the creation of an independent Islamic state in the south.
The group signed a cease-fire with Manila last year to pave the way for peace negotiations, but skirmishes continue, with both sides accusing each other of instigating the violence.
A new round of peace negotiations to be held in Malaysia this month has been postponed to give both sides more time to prepare.
