30 dead in southern Philippines gun battle
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, Oct 11
(AFP) - At least 17 Muslim separatist guerrillas, eight Marines, and five government
militiamen were killed in an intense gunbattle in the southern Philippines, the military
said Wednesday.
Fighting in the province of
Lanao del Sur erupted after about 100 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
simultaneously stormed two army detachments in the town of Balabagan on Tuesday, the
military's southern command said here.
Government militiamen tried to
fight off the rebels but were outnumbered, said local spokesman Major Henry Basane.
Reinforcements, backed by five
armoured personnel carriers from the Marines, later engaged the rebels in two hours of
running gunbattles.
Fleeing MILF rebels also
attacked a separate army unit outside the town, he said.
Many of the MILF rebels later
escaped, but 17 MILF rebels were killed.
Eight Marines and five
government militimen were also killed in the fighting, Basane said.
The military's southern command
said five soldiers and seven militiamen were wounded.
The attack came after MILF
spokesman Eid Kabalu told AFP earlier this week the group would intensify guerrilla
warfare following the fall of their main camp and 40 other territories across the south in
July.
Kabalu said a "jihad"
or holy war called by MILF leaders shortly after the defeat was still on, and the group
"has to carry out offenses and we are moving according to schedule."
"It is still all-out war
here in Mindanao," he said.
The 15,000-strong MILF is the
largest remaining Muslim rebel group fighting for an independent Islamic state in the main
southern island. It pulled out of peace talks after the military routed its positions
earlier this year, and after government slapped bounties on its leaders.
But President Joseph Estrada,
in a bid to lure the rebels back to the negotiating table, has ordered the justice
department to withdraw criminal charges against MILF leaders accused of carrying out a
series of bombings and massacres shortly after the jihad call, a newspaper reported
Wednesday.
Estrada had earlier offered a
limited amnesty to the MILF, but Kabalu branded it a ploy by Manila to trick rebels into
laying down their arms.
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