Moslem guerrillas blamed for bombing in Zamboanga
Moslem guerrillas blamed for bombing in Zamboanga
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Agencies): A Philippine military commander yesterday blamed Moslem guerrillas for the bombing of a southern commercial center and ordered his men to capture the rebel leader dead or alive.
Maj. Gen. Orlando Soriano said the car bomb that wounded 33 people in Zamboanga on Sunday evening was intended to divert the military from its four-day-old assault on the hideout of the Moslem fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf group in nearby Jolo island.
"This is pre-planned by the Abu Sayyaf to lessen the pressure on them...but we will continue our drive, we are going to continue the pressure," the regional commander said.
"My instruction to soldiers is to get him dead or alive," Soriano said of rebel leader Abdurajak Janjalani, who assumed the name Abu Sayyaf (Sword of God) after taking command of young Moslem radicals.
Police increased patrols around churches, schools, petrol stations and other facilities in Zamboanga, a largely Christian city of 430,000 people, to prevent further attacks.
Military reports said 30 guerrillas and eight soldiers had died in fighting since 1,400 troops, backed by gunboats and warplanes, launched their offensive on the rebels' mountain stronghold in Jolo on Friday.
A Marine spokesman said advancing soldiers were only 500 meters from Abu Sayyaf's main camp and could take it during the day.
Officials said the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the mainstream rebel force campaigning for Moslem autonomy in the south, had promised not to intervene in the fighting.
Its main stronghold is also in Jolo, a mountainous island lying off the southwestern tip of Mindanao about 950 kilometers south of Manila.
The military has blamed the Abu Sayyaf group for a spate of kidnapping and bombing incidents in the southern islands in the past year.
More than 50,000 people died in Mindanao during the 1970s when Moslem guerrillas fought to secede from the overwhelmingly Christian country.
The MNLF is now negotiating with the government for more autonomy, rather than secession.
Meanwhile, UPI reported that the military captured yesterday the main rebel camp of Muslim extremists guerrillas in the southern Philippines after a four-day assault that claimed at least 36 lives.
Following an aerial bombardment on the camp, three battalions of police and military troopers overran the stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, a heavily armed rebel force that claimed responsibility for a rash of bombings and kidnappings in the past year.
"The Abu Sayyaf is a national menace," said Col. Ponciano Millena, head of the joint police-military task force that carried out the offensive. "We will not stop until we get rid of them."