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Saturday, March 29, 2003
6 die in suspected Moro rebel attacks in the Philippines (2:07 pm)
COTABATO -- Six people including an entire family and the son of a mayor were killed in attacks blamed by the military Saturday on Moro separatists in Mindanao.
About 30 guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) broke into the home of a Christian family in Lambayong town before dawn Saturday and gunned down the father, mother and two children, military spokesman Major Onting Alon said.
The guerrillas then took the family's livestock and fled, Alon said.
In another incident, suspected MILF rebels shot dead the son of a mayor in Paglat town and his cousin while they were riding a motorcycle on Friday, local commander Major General Generoso Senga said.
The mayor had been helping in the campaign against the Moro rebels, he said.
Senga also blamed the MILF for two bombs that went off on a bridge in Carmen town late Friday, partially damaging the span.
However, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied his group was behind the attacks, saying banditry or political rivalries might have been at work.
Kabalu said the MILF attacks only government targets, not civilians.
Officials however have blamed the MILF for a rash of attacks on civilians in recent weeks in apparent retaliation for the military's overrunning an MILF enclave in mid-February.
The attacks came even as government and MILF panels were holding exploratory talks in Malaysia aimed at restarting negotiations. AFP
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