ZAMBOANGA CITY: Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels yesterday bombed a bridge and raided a village in Maguindanao province in the restive Muslim autonomous region in the southern Philippines, officials said.
Officials said the attack on the bridge occurred before dawn in the village of Lintokan in Datu Piang town. Rebels also torched houses on a nearby village of Reina Regente forcing residents to flee the rampage.
There were no immediate reports of civilian casualties, but the military blamed the attacks on a senior MILF leader, Ameril Kato, who also led a series of deadly attacks last year in the region.
“Troops are clearing the area,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, a spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the bombing of the bridge was part of a counter-attack. He denied rebels burned houses of civilians.
Kabalu also said rebels on Sunday fired rockets at the positions of the Army’s 54th Infantry Battalion in the village of Datu Gumbay in Datu Piang town, targeting the 105mm howitzers and munitions storage in the area.
Rebel forces also attacked government troops earlier in the day in the village of Teren-Teren in North Cotabato’s Alamada town and three other areas in the towns of Banisilan, Aleosan and Midsayap.
Manila opened peace talks with the MILF in 2001, but the negotiations collapsed in August after government negotiators reneged on a deal that would grant some four million Muslims a separate homeland across more than 700 villages in Mindanao.
The Supreme Court later said in a ruling that the deal was unconstitutional.
