RP Moro separatists step up attacks

RP Moro separatists step up attacks

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines (AFP): Muslim separatists accused of unleashing fatal bombings in Manila have stepped up attacks against troops in the southern Philippines, military officials said on Tuesday.

Military spokesmen here said helicopter gunships have been dispatched to southern Lanao del Sur province, after some 500 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attacked army detachments in the area over the weekend.

Capt. Alexis Bravo, operations head of the army unit in Lanao, said the rebels swooped on army detachments in five hinterland towns in the province triggering clashes that left 10 civilians and two government militias wounded.

The MILF, the country's main Muslim insurgent group, is waging a 22-year rebellion to set up an independent Islamic state in the south.