Filipino Military Attacks MILF Strongholds

Before departing the Philippines, Arroyo ordered selective strikes against Muslim separatist target

By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia correspondent

Kuala Lumpur, May 19 (IslamOnline.net) - War broke out again in the Philippines province of Mindanao where Muslim rebels are now under attack from the military, indicating that the peace process has completely broke down in the largely Muslim dominated area.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a group of Muslim rebels fighting for independence of their territory from the Philippines has suffered scores of dead, with no less than 80 dead on their side, news reports said on Monday, May 19.

The MILF confirmed that the casualty toll was heavy after the continuous bombing by the military of its ‘territories” but denied the MILF had suffered 80 death. It vowed it will strike back and that this time the war has begun in Mindanao after a short spell of peace since 2002.

Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesperson, said their field forces in the Zamboanga peninsula and near Camp Abubakar, the former main MILF base in Maguindanao, did not hear exploding bombs in their areas, reported the Inq7 news website on Monday.

But he admitted that MILF forces in Lanao del Norte, particularly in the towns of Kauswagan, Munai and Piagapo, and in the Buliok complex in North Cotabato had been subjected to military bombardments.

"The bombardments have been going on even before (the President's) order. So these things were not new to us," he said.

The MILF were still holding their grounds and were fighting back bravely despite the heavy bombings, he added.

The renewed conflict has displaced more than 30,000 people since Sunday, May 18, and there are fears that more civilians will leave their homes and villages for shelter in areas that are not under gun fire.

80,000 people, mostly Muslims were displaced when the military launched a series of offensives in MILF territories earlier this year in Pikit, resulting in a humanitarian chaos that has still not been settled.

The Filipino government said it was not against the MILF itself but against “pro-terror” elements hiding within territories occupied by the rebel group.

Heavily armed Philippine marines conducting a foot patrol

It has so far hesitated to call the MILF a terror organization despite pressures from its military commanders in the southern region to put the terror tag on the back of the Muslim group.

On the eve of her visit to the United States, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo gave orders to the military to attack what she called selective targets in Mindanao.

She said the military was ordered to carry out raids and strike at ‘terror camps’ and terrorists based in the region in order to clamp down on terror acts.

A spate of bombing in Mindanao has rendered the peace treaty signed between the warring factions in Putra Jaya and Malaysia last year redundant and it appears that there is little hope to salvage after Sunday’s launch of renewed bombing by the military.

The MILF said on Monday that Arroyo had ordered the bombings of “selective targets” in order to wrangle more military assistance from Washington and cover up what he said was her military's failure to crush the decades-old Moro rebellion in the South, reported the Inq7 website.

"We also have our own version of selective targets and we will be hitting back against the military… The MILF will hit back and we will hit hard," Kabalu told The Star newspaper.

MILF commander Abdurahman Macapaar, alias Commander Bravo, also warned that the rebels will strike back at the military through their "highly trained snipers" posted "all over Mindanao."

"We want to do away with hitting civilians in the crossfire. We can not yet match the military’s high-powered armaments and gunships," Bravo told Inq7, explaining why the MILF would have to resort to snipers.