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.