Zamboanga City, Philippines - Additional troops were
dispatched Saturday to a southern Philippine island where fierce
fighting between government soldiers and Muslim rebels has left more
than 50 people dead, the military said.
Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres said the first batch of about
1,000 troops arrived on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of
Manila, on Saturday to hunt down guerrillas involved in the fighting
that killed 25 soldiers.
A civilian and 31 fighters from the Abu Sayyaf rebel group and the
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which signed a peace agreement
with the government in 1996, were also killed in the fighting on
Thursday.
'We are continuing with our operations to be able to cordon off
and finally destroy the Abu Sayyaf,' Torres said.
There are currently four army battalions and four marine
battalions on Jolo island, a stronghold of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu
Sayyaf.
The hostilities erupted when Abu Sayyaf rebels and MNLF fighters
ambushed a group of soldiers on their way to the public market on the
border of Indanan and Maimbung towns on Thursday, triggering all-day
clashes.
More than 4,300 people have been forced to flee their homes in the
affected towns due to the violence, according to Bai Racma Imam, an
official with the local social welfare department.
Armed forces chief of staff General Hermogenes Esperon was
scheduled to visit Jolo on Sunday to review the military's offensive
against the Abu Sayyaf.
'I am very sad about the high casualties, but I'm not
disheartened,' he said. 'I'm proud of our soldiers because they are
on the offensive despite the hardships.'
Since Friday, no clashes have been reported between the military
and the guerrillas.
The MNLF has already asked the Organization of Islamic Conference
(OIC), which brokered the 1996 peace agreement with the government,
to intervene to avoid an escalation of the hostilities.
While the MNLF signed a peace pact with the government, thousands
of its members continue to carry weapons and hold camps in the
southern region of Mindanao.
Some disgruntled members and officials have also expressed
dissatisfaction over the government's failure to implement some key
provisions of the 10-year-old peace accord, especially those aimed at
developing Muslim areas in Mindanao.
A tripartite meeting among representatives of the OIC, which
brokered the peace pact; the Philippine government; and the MNLF to
assess the implementation of the agreement has been postponed several
times.
The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for some of the worst terrorist
attacks in the Philippines. It is believed to be working with two top
militants with the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah regional
terrorist group who are hiding in Mindanao.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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