MILF, Army trade accusations as fighting flares up in Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 9, 2010) – Philippine Muslim rebels on Friday accused the military of attacking them near Maguindanao province where a three-year old boy was killed in mortar fires.

Von Al-Haq, a spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said troops fired mortars on MILF targets in Datu Piang town, but one of the missiles hit a civilian area and killed the boy and wounded six others.

“Government troops fired mortars on MILF targets, but it landed on a civilian area and killed a three-year old boy. Six other children were wounded in that attack,” he said.

Al-Haq said military attack on Thursday was triggered by fighting between two Muslim clans after troops sided with one of the clan leaders. “It was a clan war, but the military sided with one leader and that started it all. The other clan leader had relatives in the MILF and fighting flared up,” he said.

But the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command on Friday blamed rebel forces for the killing of the boy. It said some 50 gunmen attacked members of the 29th Infantry Battalion, sparking a firefight.

Major Randolph Cabangbang, a regional army spokesman, said gunmen fired two rounds of mortar bombs hitting a village that killed the boy. He said six others were wounded in the attack. There were no reports of military or rebel casualties in the latest fighting.

Last week, the MILF also accused the military of launching mortar attacks in the villages of Lagitan and Meti in Maguindanao’s Datu Blah Sinsuat town.

Peace talks between the MILF and Manila was suspended after President Gloria Aquino ended her term last month, but new Filipino leader Benigno Simeon Aquino III said he would soon resume the negotiations with Muslim rebels in an effort to end bloody fighting in Mindanao.

The MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, is fighting for decades for self-determination. (Mindanao Examiner)