COTABATO CITY, 16 April 2003 — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday disowned a statement warning the Philippine government and American troops to get out of the southern Philippines Mindanao or face attacks.
Local reports attributed the warning to a Nasser Lukman, who assumed the title of adviser to the MILF.
“Lukman is not a member of the MILF and has no authority to talk about for and in our behalf,” said separatist spokesman Eid Kabalu said
Lukman’s statement was in connection with the planned Balikatan war exercises by US and Philippine forces in Western Mindanao. President Gloria Arroyo had earlier said the war games will soon be conducted in the province of Sulu, a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf extremists and various groups of marauders.
Kabalu said, however, that a counter-attack by MILF fighters would be the logical consequence should the government and American troops intrude into their territory.
“Should that happen, then, our last and final recourse is to defend ourselves using corresponding force,” he said.
In Basilan island province near Zamboanga City, Aat least six suspectedAbu Sayyaf kidnappers have been killed in clashes while a grenade attack killed a local official, the military said yesterday.
Two Abu Sayyaf rebels were killed in a high seas clash with government forces on Monday off the island of Basilan, about 850 kilometers (530 miles) south of Manila, provincial spokesman Cris Puno said.
A soldier and a civilian volunteer accompanying the troops were also wounded.
The rebels were believed to be fleeing to Basilan from the nearby Jolo, where a massive military operation has been launched to rescue as many as five Filipino hostages held by the rebels.
Army troops, meanwhile, stormed a suspected Abu Sayyaf lair near the Jolo town of Talipao also on Monday, triggering an hour-long running gunbattle in which four gunmen were killed, island army chief Colonel Alexander Aleo said.
“At least four are confirmed dead, but enemy casualties could be more. We have radio intercepts saying more rebels are wounded in the clash. Two soldiers were also wounded,” Aleo said.
Aleo said the rebel unit the soldiers had fought was a unit under the command of senior Abu Sayyaf leader Ghalib Andang, who in 2000 launched a cross-border raid into the Malaysian resort of Sipadan and kidnapped 21 European and Asian hostages.
The clashes came on the same day as President Gloria Arroyo in Manila vowed there will be no easing of military operations to crush the gunmen during the long Easter break.
Arroyo’s statement came as the rebels seized a Filipino-Chinese trader on an island off Jolo on Saturday, adding to the four Filipina Christian preachers they kidnapped in August last year.
Elsewhere in the south, two suspected members of MILF hurled a grenade at a restaurant where local officials were meeting late Monday, killing one official and wounding seven other people.
District official Hermie Ben de Guzman was killed and many others were left in critical conditions in the attack in Kabacan town on the main southern island of Mindanao, military spokesmen said.
The 12,500-strong MILF has been blamed for a series of bombings in the south in recent weeks that have claimed dozens of lives.
The military has also accused it of protecting Abu Sayyaf members who seek refuge in its territories in the south.
