Thirteen Muslim separatist rebels and eight government soldiers were killed Monday as Muslim guerrillas attacked an army outpost in the southern Philippines, violating a two-year-old ceasefire.
Three soldiers were also abducted and two are still missing as the guerrillas from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) virtually overran the outpost in the town of Mamasapano in the southern island of Mindanao, military officials said.
It was not clear how the clashes would affect ongoing peace talks scheduled to resume early this year.
Two soldiers were also wounded in the attack that began late Sunday when some 100 MILF rebels, armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, swooped on the outpost.
Colonel Franklin del Prado, spokesman of the Philippine Army's 6th Infantry Division in the area, said the slain soldiers all belonged to the battalion base attacked by the MILF.
Helicopter gunships and artillery fire were called in to blast the MILF positions as the fighting continued into Monday, del Prado added.
He said reports from the field indicated that at least 13 MILF rebels were killed in the counter-offensive.
Eight guerrillas were also wounded in the clash, said local army commander Lieutenant Colonel Romulo Ocfemia.
Del Prado said the attack at Mamasapano, some 60km south of Cotabato city, was mounted by forces of MILF commander Abdul Rahman Binago whose brother, Fides Binago, leader of the Abu Sofia bandit group, was killed last week.
The attack indicated there was an alliance between the Abu Sofia, which has been involved in kidnappings and robberies, and the MILF, which had signed a ceasefire with Manila in 2002, he said.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu confirmed that Binago's forces had attacked the outpost in apparent retaliation for his brother's death but stressed that this was not sanctioned by the highest MILF leadership.
Kabalu said the MILF leadership was trying to contact Binago to get him to pull out and that an international team of ceasefire monitors was being rushed to the area to keep the fighting from spreading.
Some 50 security officials from Brunei, Malaysia and Libya have been deployed to the southern Philippines as part of an international team to monitor the ceasefire between the MILF and the government.
A Malaysian team is proceeding to the site of the fighting along with a joint government-MILF monitoring group, Kabalu said.
Del Prado was unable to confirm if the monitoring team had arrived.
Brigadier General Alexander Yano, who is part of the government's committee on the ceasefire, said the military understood that this was not an official MILF action and expressed hope that the fighting would not spread.
"We will try to contain hostilities within the immediate vicinity to prevent spilling over to other areas," he said.
The military was pursuing the attackers, Yano said but stressed that "our operations are targeted against the groups responsible for the attack and not against the MILF."
He said a joint ceasefire monitoring committee of the government and the MILF, along with representatives of the international monitoring team would meet soon in the southern city of Davao to discuss the incident.
The 12,000-strong MILF has been waging a 26-year rebellion in the southern third of this largely-Christian archipelago.
Despite the signing of the ceasefire and the start of initial peace talks, sporadic clashes and military allegations that rebel commanders are sheltering members of the regional Jemaah Islamiyah terror network have strained the already fragile peace process.
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
RSS