Cotabato City, Philippines - Three civilians, including a
5-year-old boy, were killed and nine were taken hostage by Muslim
separatist rebels in two attacks in the southern Philippines, police
said Friday.
The civilians were slain when Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
rebels attacked a military outpost Thursday in Midsayap town in North
Cotabato province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, said the town's
police chief, Inspector Renante Cabico.
Cabico said the victims were among 150 people caught in the
crossfire between the MILF guerrillas and army troops.
'They were visiting relatives when the clashes between the army
and the MILF occurred,' he said. 'They were hit by stray bullets as
they fled with about 30 families.'
In Basilan province, 900 kilometres south of Manila, MILF rebels
stormed two villages in Maluso town and took nine people hostage,
said Senior Superintendent Salik Macapantar, provincial police
director.
Macapantar said the guerrillas raided the villages Friday and took
the hostages as they fled. He said government security forces have
been dispatched to hunt down the rebels and rescue the captives.
The attacks occurred as the military launched fresh airstrikes
against MILF rebel positions in nearby Maguindanao and Lanao del
Norte provinces.
The military offensives have triggered new evacuations of refugees
in the affected areas, according to the International Committee for
the Red Cross.
Robert Paterson, a Red Cross medical delegate in the Philippines,
said the continuing hostilities have also 'discouraged people already
displaced from returning to their homes.'
'In view of the fact that the government will revive peace talks
with the MILF only on the condition that there is disarmament and
that the MILF refuses to disarm prior to a final peace agreement,
long-term displacement is likely,' he said.
Peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF were
called off after the rebels launched a series of deadly attacks in
southern provinces in August.
The attacks and subsequent fighting killed more than 200 people,
mostly civilians, and forced more than 500,000 to flee their homes at
the height of the hostilities.
Because of the fighting, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
dissolved the government's peace-negotiating panel with the MILF and
ordered a review of the peace talks.
Arroyo has stressed the government would only return to the
negotiating table if the MILF disarms and demobilizes its forces and
reintegrates them into the mainstream community.
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