AFP claims 16 MILF rebels killed in Maguindanao clashes
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 09/25/2008 1:19 PM
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The military on Thursday claimed killing 16 Moro Islamic Liberation fighters in separate clashes in Maguindanao province on Wednesday.
Maj. Armand Rico, spokesman of the Armed Forces' Western Mindanao Command, said nine MILF fighters died in fierce firefight in Sitio Gawang, Barangay Daplawan, Datu Saudi Ampatuan town on Wednesday.
Six of the rebels were identified as Tatukan Babawi, Wahab Faisal, Nasrudin Faisal, Muslimen Tiao, Montao Abu and Haider Sulaiman.
Rico said the rebels were killed by members of the Philippine Army's 64th Infantry Battalion. He said only two soldiers were injured in the clash.
The military spokesman said seven more rebels were killed in military artillery fire over a suspected MILF encampment in Barangay Tee, Datu Piang town, also on Wednesday.
He said the death count was confirmed by civilian residents of Barangay Tee and military field commanders.
The MILF, meanwhile, said in its website that at least 20 government soldiers died in separate clashes in Maguindanao province.
It said the "freedom fighters" of the 105th Base Command, headed by wanted MILF commander Ameril Umbra Kato, were able to surprise soldiers with rocket propelled grenades and heavy firing during the clashes.
Umbra Kato and another MILF commander, Abdulrahman Macapaar, are being pursued by government security forces for allegedly leading civilian attacks in North Cotabato and Lanao provinces.
The MILF's alleged attacks in the provinces came after the Supreme Court stopped the government and the rebel group's signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, which creates a Bangsamoro homeland in Muslim Mindanao.
Fighting between the MILF and the government has displaced at least 500,000 people in Mindanao.
The Philippine National Red Cross had warned the government that it may be facing a humanitarian conflict in Mindanao if it continues its offensive against the rebels.
