Rebels Storm Military Posts In Jolo Island, 3 Dead, 12 Wounded!

Military and police armored vehicles patrol Jolo Island, where Moro National Liberation Front rebels attack military posts, leaving 3 people dead and about a dozen more injured. (Mindanao Examiner Photo Service)

JOLO ISLAND (Mindanao Examiner / 14 Apr) – At least 3 people were killed and about a dozen more injured in a series of mortar attacks Saturday by Moro National Liberation Front rebels in the southern Filipino island of Jolo, officials said.

Officials said the rebels attacked several military posts in Panamao town and that one of the mortars exploded near a government building, killing a child and wounding another villager. But the military said there could be more civilian casualties.

Two marine soldiers were also killed and eight more wounded many seriously, when rebels attacked their post in the village of Tayungan with mortar bombs at around 6 a.m.

Army Major Eugene Batara, a regional military spokesman, said the rebels, under Jabier Malik, also rained mortar bombs on the headquarters of the Philippine Marines in the village of Seit before dawn Saturday.

“Malik’s group fired at least 5 rounds (of mortars) at the marine base, but only one exploded inside the (headquarters). The rebels also fired three more rounds toward the Panamao municipal hall (building). Security forces are in control of the situation,” Batara told the Mindanao Examiner newspaper.

Batara said the motive of the attacks were unknown, but troops on Wednesday clashed with suspected Abu Sayyaf militants allegedly aided by MNLF rebels in the village of Buanza in Indanan.

Major General Ruben Rafael, the island's military chief, condemned the attacks and said security forces will supress "this lawlessness perpetrated by this group." He said: "The (exact number of) civilian casualties are still unknown as of this report."

Fighting also erupted earlier this week in Talipao town near a major MNLF stronghold where troops raided a Jemaah Islamiya hideout and captured three local terrorists.

But an Indonesian bomber Umar Patek and a senior Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, had escaped the raiders in the village of Kanlimot.One soldier was also wounded in a separate clash Monday in Bakong village in Patikul town on the other side of the island.

Besides Patek, soldiers were also hunting down Dulmatin and Malaysian terror suspect Zulkifli bin Hir and other Jemaah Islamiya militants hiding on the island under the protection of the Abu Sayyaf. Jakarta tagged both Patek and Dulmatin as behind the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australian holiday-makers.

While Zulkifli bin Hir, an engineer trained in the U.S. allegedly heads the Kumpulun Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM) terrorist organization and is a member of Jemaah Islamiya central command.

Washington offered as much as $10 million reward for the capture of Dulmatin and $ 5 million for Zulkifli and Hapilon and another $1 million bounty for Patek.

The latest fighting broke out ahead of a planned peace advocacy forum in Jolo island on the government peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group. The MILF, which broke away with the MNLF, is fighting the past three decades for a separate homeland in Mindanao.

The MNLF rebels, under Nur Misuari, signed a peace agreement with Manila in September 1996. After the peace agreement was signed, Misuari, became the governor of the Muslim autonomous region. But despite the agreement, there was a widespread disillusionment with the weak autonomy they were granted.

Under the peace agreement, Manila would provide a mini-Marshal Plan to spur economic development in Muslim areas in the south and livelihood and housing assistance to tens of thousands of former rebels to uplift their poor living standards.

Many MNLF members were disgruntled with the peace deal, saying, the Arroyo government failed to comply with some of its provisions and uplift their standards of living. They accused Manila of failing to develop the war-torn areas in the south.

And in November 2001, on the eve of the elections in the Muslim autonomous region, Misuari accused the government of reneging on the peace agreement, and launched a new rebellion in Jolo island and Zamboanga City, where more than 100 people were killed. Misuari then escaped by boat to Malaysia, but had been arrested and deported to the Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)