Philippine forces were fighting Muslim rebels on two fronts yesterday as clashes broke out near a southern city being besieged by guerrillas opposed to peace talks with the government, officials said.
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) gunmen attacked army positions on Basilan island, wounding at least three soldiers, the military said.
Basilan is across a narrow strip of sea from Zamboanga, a major port city where about 180 MNLF fighters have been locked in sporadic clashes with troops since Monday, displacing about 13,000 residents.
“We would like to believe this is just part of their diversionary tactics,” regional military spokesman Colonel Rodrigo Gregorio said of the Basilan attacks.
He said two other guerrilla groups with links to the MNLF were also involved in the fighting in Basilan, a jungle-clad island that is a traditional stronghold of the militants.
On the fourth day of the MNLF siege of Zamboanga, rebels fired mortars and snipers targeted government troops as they advanced on militant positions, a reporter said.
The gunmen are followers of Nur Misuari, who founded the MNLF, which launched a long separatist rebellion in 1971.
He made a renewed declaration of “independence” a month ago after alleging the government was violating the terms of a 1996 peace deal that created a Muslim self-rule area in the south by negotiating a separate peace deal with a rival faction, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Misuari has accused the government of reneging on its promises, and of sidelining his group in favor of the MILF, which is expected to take over an expanded autonomous region by 2016.
The government insists the proposed deal with the MILF would honor the MNLF agreement as it seeks to end an insurgency that has killed about 150,000 people in the south.
The rebels are hiding out among between 80 and 180 “human shields” in several neighborhoods on the city’s outskirts, officials said.
Philippine Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said yesterday that officials were trying to verify allegations that the gunmen had raped some of the women.
The alleged violations were reported by a resident who escaped from the gunmen, she said.
Gregorio said hundreds of elite soldiers backed by police had restricted the rebels’ movement, but the presence of civilians was preventing any effort to end the siege by force.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala added: “We cannot just conduct offensive actions without taking account of the hostages.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese