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.