RP troops clash with MNLF, 12 killed

RP troops clash with MNLF, 12 killed

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP): Twelve people were killed Thursday during a gunfight between soldiers and former Moro separatist rebels in the southern Philippines city of Marawi, the military said.

Ten of the dead were civilians and the two others were former members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), army Col. Antonio Seville said.

The gunmen claimed six soldiers were also killed but this could not be independently confirmed.

The fighting erupted before dawn Thursday when a battalion of infantry moved into a Marawi neighborhood after residents complained of a heavy presence of ex-MNLF gunmen.

Numbering around 30, the gunmen led by ex-MNLF commander Mitomara Amir Sadic opened fire when soldiers tried to disarm them, triggering heavy fighting.

They then briefly held hostage several civilians, including women and children, and later torched part of a commercial building they had taken over in the city's market area.

Soldiers, backed by armored vehicles, surrounded the building at noon and exchanged gunfire with the rebels, who ignored appeals from Muslim elders to surrender but freed the civilians.

Thirty-two gunmen, including their leader Sadic, were arrested. Four among them were injured.

Ten civilians were killed in the crossfire and two soldiers were hurt, the military said.

The military had to evacuate about 100 families at the height of the intermittent battle which lasted 14 hours.

Seville said the standoff ended shortly before sundown at about 5:00 pm (1600 Jakarta time), when the military mounted a final assault and stormed the building.

"We captured dozens of gunmen and lawless elements after the soldiers assaulted the building. We are in full control of the situation and we are in the process of interrogating the lawless group," Seville said.

MNLF official Abdurrahman Jamasali denounced the army assault.

"The raid is a serious violation of the 1996 peace accord," under which the MNLF ended 24 years of separatist rebellion and accepted limited self-rule in four southern provinces, Jamasali told reporters here.

About 7,500 MNLF fighters were integrated into the military and police forces following the peace deal, while MNLF leaders were elected to key positions in the autonomous government. But the rest of the rebel force refused to disarm.

Jamasali, the interior undersecretary of the regional government, said the MNLF would raise a protest with the national government. " The military should have coordinated first with the MNLF" before entering Marawi, which is part of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, he added.