RP Troops Shell MNLF Rebel Base In Jolo Island

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 25 Apr) – Government soldiers shelled Wednesday a mountain hideout of the Moro National Liberation Front rebels in the southern island of Jolo, as fighting entered its second third week.

Troops were battling the MNLF and members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group and the Jemaah Islamiya on the island’s Indanan town, about 950 km from Manila.

Troops also seized 600 kilos of ammonium nitrate on Wednesday from a mini-bus in Panamao town near where security forces were also pursuing a separate faction of the MNLF.

The chemical is widely used in the manufacture of homemade explosives in the troubled southern Philippine region. The bus driver and passengers denied knowledge of the cargo and there were no arrest made.

It was the second time that troops seized such chemical. In Zamboanga City, soldiers manning a checkpoint also recovered 25 kilos of ammonium nitrate from a passenger bus during a security check.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, but the military said it was targeting Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya hiding in the camp controlled by Khaid Ajibun, one of the most influential rebel leader allied with jailed MNLF chieftain Nur Misuari.

Misuari is facing rebellion charges after his forces attacked a major military base in Jolo island in 2000. The MNLF signed a peace agreement with Manila in September 1996, but accused the Arroyo government of failing to honor the accord.

Fighting erupted in Jolo island on April 13 after MNLF forces led by Ajibun’s lieutenant Ustadz Habier Malik attacked a military base and a town hall in Panamao town.

The military said three of its soldiers were killed and dozens more injured in the clashes. It also said the dozens of rebels were killed in the fighting, but the claims had been denied by the MNLF.

Some 8,000 soldiers are involved in the operation against about a thousand rebels and Abu Sayyaf members and a dozen Jemaah Islamiya militants, including Dulmatin and Umar Patek, who were both implicated in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. (Mindanao Examiner)