5 More MILF Rebels Killed In Mindanao Fighting

War refugees in Maguindanao province in the southern Philippines stay at temporary shelters after fighting between troops and MILF rebels continue in the troubled region. (Photos by Mindanao Tulong Bakwet-Mindanao Emergency Response)

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 26, 2008) – Five Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels were killed in clashes with government troops in the southern Philippines, officials said Tuesday.

Fighting entered its second week in the troubled region after troops drove away hundreds of rebels under Ameril Kato and Abdurahman Macapaar who led a series of attacks in Mindanao.

Lt. Gen. Nelson Allaga, commander of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, said government planes bombed MILF targets in Lanao del Norte province where the two rogue leaders were believed to be hiding.

He said five rebels were killed and ten more wounded.

But Allaga said five soldiers were also wounded in the fighting in the village of Lunsod in Poona Piagapo town in Lanao del Norte, scene of fierce clashes that killed 16 rebels and two infantrymen last week.

Allaga said troops already seized several small bases of Macapaar in Poona Piagapo and Matunggao towns. “We got five of them and the operation will continue until we get the murderers,” he said.

He said intelligence reports suggested that Macapaar was wounded in the government offensive, but the military in the past issued similar statements only to recant it later. It previously reported that Kato was also injured in an ambush staged by the military, but this also turned out to be false.

Military forces also killed more than 100 rebels since last week in fierce fighting in Maguindanao and Sarangani provinces.

The fighting continued despite peace talks between Manila and the MILF. The hostilities were also threatening the seven-year old peace negotiations and there is no sign the fighting would stop. The MILF refused to surrender the two notorious commanders despite Manila’s repeated demands.

President Gloria Arroyo, who has put up a five million pesos bounty each for Katao and Macapaar, ordered police and military forces to capture the two rebels, who are among a small circle of MILF hardliners linked to the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiya.

Allaga has urged civilians to help in capturing Kato and Macapaar and provide intelligence to authorities about their groups.

The rebels launched attacks after the aborted signing of the ancestral domain deal between the MILF and Manila. The accord would have granted Muslims their own homeland in more than 700 villages across Mindanao, but the deal also sparked a series of protests from politicians and residents opposed to the inclusion of their areas to the agreement that will make up the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

The Supreme Court stopped the signing of the memorandum of agreement on the ancestral domain after some lawmakers and politicians filed separate petitions asking the government to bare the rest of the deal with the MILF.

The MILF said it will not anymore negotiate the ancestral domain deal, saying, peace negotiators have already initialed the accord last month in Malaysia, which is brokering the peace talks. (Mindanao Examiner)