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June 10, 2000, The Philippine Star, Soldier killed, 3 wounded in new MILF attacks, by John Unson,

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June 10, 2000, The Philippine Star, Soldier killed, 3 wounded in new MILF attacks, by John Unson,

 

COTABATO CITY -- A soldier and a civilian were killed while at least 10 government troops were wounded in attacks by separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in North Cotabato early yesterday.

 

MILF guerrillas fired at patrolling troops in Nalapaan village in North Cotabato using rocket-propelled grenades, triggering a firefight that left a farmer dead and three soldiers wounded. The attack forced the military to close a major road which links Cotabato City to Davao City, the largest urban center in Mindanao. Soldiers stopped about 300 vehicles from passing through the road to prevent them from being caught in the crossfire.

 

Col. Hermogenes Esperon, commander of the Army's 602nd Infantry Brigade, said he expected the road would be cleared of rebels and reopened later yesterday. Maj. Julieto Ando, civil-military relations chief of the 6th Infantry Division, said farmer Leopoldo Tumagos of Aleosan town was killed in the crossfire between the soldiers and the rebels.

 

"He was dragging his work animals from his yard to a safe area when the rebels started shooting him. Three of of the animals were also killed," he said. Ando said the MILF's attacks were believed to be a retaliation for the military's capture of rebel enclaves in Sultan Kudarat and Pagagawan towns in Maguindanao.

 

At least 67 rebels were killed in the Army's siege of an MILF camp in Barangay Limbalud, Pagagawan where the rebel group used to run a shadow government. The camp fell last Thursday after a week-long offensive. In nearby Midsayap town, suspected MILF rebels also attempted to blow up a 65-foot concrete bridge before dawn yesterday.

 

Esperon said one of the five bombs planted under the bridge exploded, causing slight damage, but did not set off the four others which could have destroyed the span. No one was hurt in the explosion. The military uses the bridge to deploy troops from Maguindanao to North Cotabato. On Thursday, government forces met little resistance when they captured three rebel camps in Maguindanao and North Cotabato, about 10 kilometers from Camp Abubakar, the MILF's main headquarters.

 

Soldiers overran last week the MILF's second biggest camp and military training center, Camp Bushra, in Lanao del Sur. The military said troops discovered a complex of trenches and bunkers in the camp and found a rebel jailhouse which was empty.

 

"No letup in drive vs MILF'

 

Military operations against the rebels intensified in late April after the government decided to shut down dozens of MILF satellite camps. However, the military has left Camp Abubakar largely untouched. Esperon said there would be no letup in the government's campaign against the rebels.

 

"The MILF forces are weakening," he said. "There is no letup in this campaign." Col. Ernesto de Guzman of the military's Southern Command said the MILF camps were "illegal" and served as launching pad for "terroristic attacks" by the 15,000-strong group that has been waging a 22-year war for a separate Muslim state in Mindanao.

 

"We are conducting operations to neutralize these illegal MILF camps," he said. "What is important is for us to be able to address their terroristic activities from out of these camps which they use as terrorist bases." The military has captured at least six other key rebel camps since January while it is conducting peace negotiations with the group.

 

De Guzman said most of the MILF's major bases had been neutralized, with Camp Abubakar still untouched. He said the military has no intention yet of "occupying or attacking" the camp while peace talks are ongoing. At least 184 soldiers and militiamen have been killed and more than 680 wounded in clashes since January, the most serious fighting in Mindanao since the height of the Muslim rebellion in the 1970s.

 

Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora said yesterday that the government could not implement a draft resolution of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) calling for an end to the military offensive against the rebels until the guerrillas lay down their arms. The OIC consists of 55 Muslim states and political groups. "We can't just stand by if our country is under attack, if our military units are ambushed, if there is extortion along our public highways. That can't be," Zamora said.

 

Senior OIC officials met in Saudi Arabia earlier this month to prepare for a foreign ministers' meeting in Malaysia in late June. Last week, government and rebel negotiators resumed peace talks, stalled for a month by the fighting, while the military operations continued. Another round of talks has been scheduled for June 28.

 

Security tightened

 

Meanwhile in Zamboanga, security has been tightened after government troops intercepted a load of chemicals used by Muslim rebels in manufacturing explosives.

 

Military officials said soldiers seized early this week some 25 kilograms of ammonium nitrate aboard a ferry bound for nearby Basilan island, a base of the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf which is on the run from a military offensive.

 

"We have ordered tightened security and extra precaution here and in nearby provinces against bomb attacks by both rebel groups on government and civilian targets," said Southern Command's De Guzman.

 

He said that soldiers swooped down on a ferry in Zamboanga after intelligence reports said that the vessel was carrying chemicals for explosives. The shipment, he added, was neatly packed and sealed. Ammonium nitrate is an ingredient often used by the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF in manufacturing homemade bombs used in attacking targets in Mindanao and even in Metro Manila.

 

No one has been arrested for the illegal shipment, although the military has deployed additional soldiers at the Zamboanga City wharf and an Army special unit to escort ferries crossing over to Basilan. Abu Sayyaf forces in Basilan are still holding six school children and two teachers hostage while their comrades in nearby Sulu are separately holding captive 21 mostly foreign captives seized from a Malaysian dive resort last April. -- With wire reports

 

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