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.