Misuari's followers step up attacks on Philippine troops
Misuari's followers step up attacks on Philippine troops
Agencies, Jolo, Philippines
Police officers and gunmen loyal to jailed Moro leader Nur Misuari killed three soldiers and a civilian in his southern Philippines island base on Wednesday, pushing the death toll in two days of unrest to 36, officials said.
President Gloria Arroyo denounced the violence which erupted on Tuesday, saying "it was instigated by troublemakers." She did not elaborate.
Jolo island's downtown was a virtual ghost town with shops and schools shuttered, roads barricaded by tyres and rocks and lampposts and walls plastered with posters of Misuari.
The military and police commands ordered all units in Jolo back to barracks to head off further bloodshed.
Misuari, 60, fled Jolo after a bloody armed rebellion by his followers in November that left more than 100 people dead. But Malaysia detained him for illegal entry and deported him last week to stand trial for rebellion.
The former separatist guerrilla leader is now detained at a police prison near Manila, and faces 20 years in jail if convicted of inciting the November rebellion.
In the latest violence, a police unit made up of former members of Misuari's Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) separatist guerrilla group ambushed an army jeep at the Jolo public market mid-morning on Wednesday.
The military said three soldiers were killed in the attack, while hospital staff said a civilian was also killed. One soldier, a policeman, and four civilian bystanders were wounded, officials said.
The policemen later mutilated the soldiers' corpses, beheading one of them, local army commander Lt. Abdurasad Sirajan said.
"We were ambushed by uniformed policemen and civilians," Private First Class Rizal Laygan told AFP as an ambulance rushed him to a military hospital for treatment of his wounds.
One thousand army and 300 police "integrees" from the MNLF based in Jolo are being investigated to determine their loyalties, said deputy chief of staff Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya.
President Arroyo on Wednesday fended off mounting criticism for the planned deployment of U.S. Special Forces troops in the southern Philippines for joint operations against allies of Osama bin Laden.
The opposition demanded public disclosure of all the terms of the six-month operation that began on Tuesday and would eventually involve nearly 700 U.S. soldiers.
They warned that the exercise could be retracing steps that led to the U.S. military debacle in the Vietnam War.
"These American soldiers won't be on the front line. They will be behind our own soldiers, observing their operations," Arroyo said in a radio broadcast.
The deployments are justified by the "threat of international terrorism" posed by the Abu Sayyaf, a Moro guerrilla group active in the southern islands of Basilan and Jolo.
Both governments say the group has ties to Saudi-born bin Laden, the main suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Washington on Tuesday that hundreds of U.S. troops will take part in military maneuvers in the southern Philippines including the islands of Jolo and Basilan, where Moro guerrillas are holding an American couple hostage.
Downtown Jolo, which has a long history of separatist violence and was burned to the ground during a major battle between Moro rebels and government troops in 1974, was eerily deserted on Wednesday morning. Some civilians barricaded roads leading into the town to try to obstruct access by soldiers from nearby areas.