32 killed in fresh clashes in S. Philippines
26/9/2008 18:03
Thirty-two people have been killed in fresh fighting between the
government troops and Muslim rebels in south Philippines over the week, a
military official said today.
Major Peter Edwin Navarro, a military
spokesman, told reporters that in the latest clashes on late yesterday, nine
members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest rebel group in
the Philippines, and one soldier were killed in a town of Maguindanao province
in Mindanao region.
Sporadic clashes in towns and villages of Maguindanao
province this week killed at least 19 MILF rebels and injured three soldiers,
although MILF claimed higher casualty on the government side.
Over the
decades, the 12,000-member MILF has been fighting for an independent state or,
more recently, a region with higher autonomy for Muslims in the south.
MILF
reached a cease-fire with the government in 2003, but skirmishes between the two
sides had never stopped along way with off-and-on peace talks with the
government. Violence escalated in Mindanao after the government failed to sign a
territorial pact with the rebel group.
MILF fighters were accused of
attacking a string of towns and villages in the Mindanao region last month.
Nearly 200 people, including three dozen civilians, were killed in the clashes
as the military stepped up clearance operation against radical members of
MILF.
More than half a million people have also reportedly been affected by
the military conflict.
Xinhua
|
