|
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Troops, bombers deployed to quell Jolo unrest
MANILA -- The military deployed hundreds of Marines and ordered Air Force planes to bombard areas on southern Jolo Tuesday to halt attacks by followers of a jailed Muslim rebel leader that triggered clashes in which at least 17 soldiers were killed, officials said.
Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza, commander of the military's Southern Command, estimated that up to 30 gunmen loyal to Nur Misuari may have also been killed in the fighting in Panamao and other outlying towns.
Up to 600 Marines sailed from southern Zamboanga city to reinforce troops on Jolo.
Air force helicopters and planes were also dispatched to help bombard gunmen holed up in Panamao.
"They have asked for it and we'll give it to them," Braganza said.
The clashes erupted Monday when about 500 of Misuari's supporters attacked government troops following an assault on their stronghold near Panamao, where Abu Sayyaf guerrillas had allegedly sought refuge, the military said.
Misuari's followers said two children and their parents were killed in the military raid.
About 300 gunmen either encircled or occupied an Army company detachment in Panamao's Siit village and entered a nearby hospital, which has since been retaken by government troops, military officials said.
In the single-biggest loss incurred by the military, 13 Marines were killed and 14 others were wounded in an ambush of a military reinforcement contingent Monday in Patikul, near Panamao, the military said.
Four others were killed in other attacks.
Jolo Governor Ben Loong said he was flying from Manila to his province, about 950 kilometers south of the capital, to help negotiate a halt to the fighting.
Abu Sulaiman, an Abu Sayyaf leader on a US list of wanted terrorists, told radio station DZBB on Tuesday that his group was supporting the attacks on Jolo and urged other Muslim guerrillas in the country's impoverished south to continue a separatist war and not to negotiate with the government.
"Continue the struggle until we attain either of the two--victory or martyrdom," he said.
The fighting on Jolo has been the most intense in recent months and reflected the fragility of peace in the volatile south, homeland of minority Muslims and site of a decades-long separatist insurgency by at least two Islamic groups.
Sporadic US-backed military offensives in recent years have whittled down the strength of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf, leaving them largely on the run on Jolo and nearby provinces.
Sporadic peace talks have also halted much of the fighting between troops and a large Muslim separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Jolo's latest violence represented a threat that has once been settled in the past.
Misuari formerly headed the Moro National Liberation Front, a large Muslim separatist group that accepted limited autonomy and signed a peace deal with the government in 1996.
But violence flared again years later and Misuari was imprisoned on charges of rebellion, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Many of his armed followers still maintain strongholds in Jolo and have been accused of supporting the Abu Sayyaf. (AP)
(February 9, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
