Fresh fighting erupts in Jolo, over 100 killed

Fresh fighting erupts in Jolo, over 100 killed

Reuters, Jolo, Philippines

Fresh fighting broke out on Jolo island in the southern
Philippines on Wednesday as the death toll in an uprising by
guerrillas loyal to a rebellious Muslim governor rose to over
100, the military said.

Military officials said they had used helicopter gunships and
World War II vintage bomber planes in strikes on guerrilla
positions and had sought the help of Malaysia to prevent Governor
Nur Misuari from escaping there by sea.

The navy threatened to sink any boat he tried to use.

"As per body count and reports from the field, the enemy
suffered fatalities not lower than 100, most of them inflicted by
our air strikes," southern military commander Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu
told reporters.

"We know where their hideouts are and air strikes are
continuing on these hideouts," Cimatu said.

Four soldiers and seven civilians have been killed while some
6,000 villagers have fled their homes.

About 7,000 soldiers hunted Misuari's fighters, who attacked a
major army base and four other targets on Jolo on Monday as
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo visited the United States.

Charges of rebellion -- a crime punishable by a maximum 40
years in jail -- are to be filed on Thursday against Misuari and
his followers, officials said.

"The government will not allow any renegade government
official to flout the law with impunity," Undersecretary of
Justice Jose Calida said.

As chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF),
Misuari signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996
after leading a revolt for an Islamic state in the south of the
mainly Roman Catholic country for 24 years.

The military said the MNLF attacks were intended to prevent
regional elections on Monday to choose a successor to Misuari as
governor of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Misuari is not contesting the election which he has denounced
as a violation of the peace accord.

"Fighting is continuing in three areas," Cimatu told the first
group of journalists to visit the embattled island since Monday's
attacks by between 500 to 800 MNLF gunmen.

He said the skirmishes were taking place in Panamao, Patikul
and Indanan, all mountainous areas on the largely Muslim island
where Misuari has traditionally enjoyed local support.

Military officials said they believed Misuari remained holed
up in a village on Jolo but they were checking reports he might
have slipped out of the country and gone to Sabah in Malaysia, a
state where hundreds of thousands of Filipino Muslims live.

A separate report from villagers said Misuari had been wounded
in the air strikes but this was unconfirmed, Cimatu said.

"We are coordinating with Malaysian authorities in case
Misuari tries to seek refuge in Malaysia," armed forces chief
General Diomedio Villanueva told reporters.

A spokesman said the Philippine Navy had stepped up patrols to
stop Misuari fleeing. "His boat will be sunk," he said.

Manila set up the ARMM, a semi-autonomous area comprising four
impoverished Muslim provinces, and installed Misuari as governor
after the 1996 peace deal.

The Arroyo administration is backing someone else for the
election, accusing Misuari of mismanaging ARMM. Misuari says the
reason the region has remained poor is because Manila has failed
to release funds it had promised to develop the area.

U.S. President George W. Bush said in Washington on Tuesday
after talks with Arroyo that the United States would boost
military and economic aid to the Philippines for its fight
against Muslim separatists, calling it an extension of the U.S.-
led war against terrorism.

In a joint statement, Bush said the United States would
provide nearly US$100 million in security assistance to help the
Philippines combat the Abu Sayyaf, another Muslim guerrilla group
which operates in the southern Philippines.

The local military has accused Misuari of entering into an
alliance with the Abu Sayyaf, which has been holding a U.S.
missionary couple hostage for nearly six months on an island near
Jolo. Washington has linked the Abu Sayyaf to Saudi-born militant
Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.