COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 26, 2008) – One army soldier was killed and three more wounded after suspected Moro rebels attacked a road security Wednesday in the southern Philippines, officials said.
The soldiers were guarding a highway in the town of Datu Odin Sinsuat in Shariff Kabunsuan province in the restive Muslim autonomous region when they came under fire near the village called Makir.
The attack triggered a firefight that left four soldiers wounded, but one of them, died before reaching the hospital, said Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, a spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division. “One soldier died before reaching the hospital and three others were wounded in the fighting,” he said.
Ando said the rebels, who were members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades and soldiers retaliated and killing or wounding a still undetermined number of gunmen.
Sporadic fighting continues in central Mindanao between the US-backed Filipino military and rebel forces since August after the peace collapsed. Manila also reneged from a deal that would have granted more than four million Muslims their own separate homeland across over 700 villages in Mindanao.
The accord initially approved in Malaysia, which brokered the peace talks, also sparked massive protests from Christian residents and politicians who opposed the Muslim territorial agreement. The Supreme Court also ruled the deal as unconstitutional.
The hostilities in Mindanao have displaced over half a million people, many in temporary refugee shelters across the troubled region.
Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the influential Organization of the Islamic Conference, has expressed deep concern about the increasing deterioration of the situation in the southern Philippines. He said the continued military operation severely affected civilians in Mindanao.
Ihsanoglu also appealed to the Philippine government and the MILF to stop the fighting and resume peace talks.
President Gloria Arroyo suspended the talks after rebel forces attacked civilian targets in Mindanao over the failed signing of the Muslim homeland deal, which would have created the so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.
Arroyo already disbanded the government peace panel negotiating with rebels and demanded the MILF to surrender three commanders – Ameril Kato, Abdullah Macapaar and Sulayman Pangalian – who led the deadly attacks in at least 3 provinces in central Mindanao.
Manila has put up a P10 million bounties each for the capture of Macapaar, Kato and Pangalian. Arroyo said the government would only return to the peace talks if the MILF surrenders the three rebel commanders. But the MILF rejected the demand and said it would resume talks if Arroyo honors the ancestral domain deal.
US troops are deployed in central Mindanao and were aiding local military forces in fighting the rebels. Just early this month, MILF rebels shot down and recovered a US spy drone inside their territory near Maguindanao province. US forces are also helping the Filipino military track down members of the al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya who, according to local authorities are being coddled by the rogue MILF commanders. (Mindanao Examiner)
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