Philippine army fights Moro rebels, talks intact

Philippine army fights Moro rebels, talks intact

Manny Mogato, Reuters/Manila

Heavy fighting between Philippine troops and Muslim rebels on Monday left at least 19 soldiers and guerrillas dead, breaking a 17-month truce just weeks before peace talks hosted by Malaysia were due to restart.

Philippine and Malaysian officials said the battle on the southern island of Mindanao would not derail the talks aimed at ending a 35-year-old separatist rebellion that has killed at 120,000 people and hurt foreign investment and rural development.

The military said it was using howitzers to shell rebel positions while helicopters fired rockets and machineguns to retake an army outpost that was overrun on Sunday night by some 200 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas.

"We have lost six soldiers," Maj. Gen. Raul Rellano, the regional army commander, told Reuters. "The rebels are still holding one soldier but we recovered two others."

Rellano said 13 rebels were killed in some of the heaviest fighting since the military and the rebels agreed to revive a truce in July 2003.

The military said a band of fighters from the MILF, the largest Muslim rebel group in this mainly Roman Catholic nation, had joined up with Abu Sofia, a small kidnap-for-ransom gang, to avenge last week's killing of suspected kidnappers by soldiers.

Rogue factions could break away from the mainstream MILF as the peace process moves forward, security analysts have said. The rebel leadership has denied any cracks in MILF ranks.

The gunbattle came two days before the government and rebel cease-fire panels were due to meet in Davao City in Mindanao to discuss ways to strengthen the truce before the resumption of formal peace talks next month in Kuala Lumpur.

"This is a clear violation of the cease-fire agreement," said Rellano. "Fighting has not stopped."

Bursts of machinegun fire and artillery explosions could be heard in the background when local television broadcast a live audio report from the scene of the fighting.

Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the MILF, said the rebels would ask a Malaysian-led team of truce monitors to investigate which side started the fighting.

"It is a truce violation, but we can't say which side fired the first shot," he told Reuters.

Kabalu said the two cease-fire committees should step in to avert an escalation of the conflict.

Brig. Gen. Alexander Yano, head of the government's cease-fire panel, said the fighting would not affect the scheduled peace talks in Malaysia.

"This is not sanctioned by the hierarchy of the MILF," Yano told reporters. "We received reports that the motive for the attack was personal. It was an independent action by some of the MILF local commanders."

Yano said he had been in contact with MILF officials and Malaysian officers leading the truce monitors to seek ways to contain the fighting and prevent any spillover to other areas.

Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Razak said he did not consider the fighting to be a breakdown of the cease-fire.

"It could be isolated incidents, but as far as we are concerned the cease-fire still remains," he told reporters.