DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 8, 2009) – Government troops clashed separately before sunrise Sunday with communist rebels and local Jemaah Islamiya members in the southern Philippines, officials said.
Officials said troops and government militiamen clashed with New People’s Army rebels at around 4.30 a.m. on a village in Davao Oriental’s Banganga town. One militia and an undetermined number of rebels were killed in the fighting, said Lt. Col. Roland Bautista, a spokesman for the Army’s 10th Infantry Division.
“One militia was killed and an undetermined number of rebels were believed slain and wounded in the clash,” he said, adding, troops recovered an M16 rifle, radio transceivers and combat packs from the fighting.
Bautista said another group of army soldiers also clashed with Jemaah Islamiya militants at around 4.40 a.m. in the village of Napnapan in Pantukan town in Compostela Valley province and capturing a Filipino bomb expert, Giovanni de Ocampo.
He said the captive admitted during interrogation that he is a member of the Indonesian militant group Jemaah Islamiya and is also an alleged commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“Initial report revealed that he is a trainer and an expert in manufacturing of improvised explosives which has caused the death of many innocent civilians and destruction of properties in this part of Mindanao,” Bautista said without further elaborating, saying, security forces were still hunting down other Jemaah Islamiya militants in the province.
There were no reports of military casualties in both clashes.
The MILF has denied the military report and disowned De Ocampo. “We have repeatedly denounced terrorism and the MILF has nothing to do with the Jemaah Islamiya,” said Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader.
The MILF is the country’s largest Muslim rebel group which is fighting the past decades for independence in the southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)
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