Manila deployes troops to contain rebels' clash
Manila deployes troops to contain rebels' clash
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP): Government troops are to be dispatched to contain a battle between rival Moro insurgent groups, the military said here, as police rounded up suspects of an extremist group during a raid on a safehouse in Manila.
A military report said 300 troops from the 6th infantry division would be sent to the boundary of Palayan and Datu Piang towns in Maguindanao province to prevent the spread of fighting between the main Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the breakaway Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF.)
The deployment report came as three MNLF members were killed in an exchange of mortar fire between them and MILF troops on Saturday, bringing the death toll in a week of sporadic to seven, division operations officer Maj. Vivencio Bataga said.
"Our troops will not interfere in their trouble but they are to help contain it," Batega said, adding that 12 armored personnel carriers were also deployed with air reconnaissance support.
The warring camps are believed to have about a hundred men each and are reportedly fighting over personal differences and territorial conflicts, Batega said.
Military and police forces in the western district of neighboring Zamboanga del Sur province went on alert Saturday after about 100 armed Moros, suspected to be members of the Abu Sayyaf Moro extremists, were sighted on board five boats in the waters close to the town of Ipil.
The Abu Sayyaf led Moro gunmen in pillaging Ipil town in April, leaving about 50 dead.
It was not clear if the armed Moros on the boats were linked to the clash between the MILF and MNLF.
The Abu Sayyaf and the MILF are both offshoots of the MNLF, which waged a bloody war for a separate Moslem state in the 1970s but later signed a cease-fire with the government and is negotiating autonomy instead.
However, Abu Sayyaf and the MILF are not covered by the cease- fire agreement.
In Manila, a combined police, military Justice Department force raided a suspected Abu Sayyaf safehouse on Saturday, arresting 17 suspects, including a police officer, and seizing marijuana and metamphetamine hydrochloride, a banned drug popularly known as "shabu."
They also seized several pistols, rifles and shotguns as well as ammunition and bullet-proof vests.
Police senior superintendent Andres Garo said the suspects may have been engaged in drug trafficking and gun-running for profit.