http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425822/987888
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Hundreds flee Philippine clashes</b>
Feb 13, 2007
Hundreds of people have fled a village in the southern Philippines after troops stormed a Muslim rebel base, hunting for dozens of prisoners who escaped from jail earlier this month, the rebels and officials said on Tuesday.
Tanks rolled into the remote village on the island of Mindanao as soldiers shelled positions of the <b>Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)</b>, with 105mm howitzers, Mohaqher Iqbal, an official from the group said.
<b>The MILF, the Philippines' largest Muslim separatist group</b>, has a shaky ceasefire with the government of the largely Catholic country.
There were no casualties reported but more than 200 families starting fleeing their homes and farms before daybreak on Sunday when soldiers launched an offensive in the area, Iqbal said.
"We're strongly protesting the indiscriminate use of force," said Iqbal, who also heads the rebels' peace negotiating panel. "They're putting at risk the innocent Muslim communities and threatening the peace process."
But the Philippine military denied targetting the MILF and said it was pursuing a group of 50 prisoners who escaped from a local jail on February 2.
"Our pursuit operations were not directed at them but against those who escaped from the provincial jail in Kidapawan," army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Julieto Ando said, adding soldiers had come under heavy gunfire while approaching the village.
The government and the MILF are trying to revive peace talks stalled since May 2006 due to differences over a proposed deal on territory in the south.
But efforts have been complicated by intermittent clashes between the rebels, soldiers and militias since January.
Iqbal said the rebels' ceasefire panel had filed an official protest, asking the military to stop attacking rebel positions.
Separately, US-trained Philippine troops killed two militants of the smaller but most violent Abu Sayyaf group during a 90-minute gun battle in the jungles of Jolo island, also in the troubled south of the country.
Brigadier-General Reynaldo Mapagu said soldiers on a training mission chanced upon a 40-member Abu Sayyaf group preparing for lunch.
"We didn't lose any soldier but we are believed to have inflicted more casualties on their side," Mapagu told reporters in Manila.
<b>Abu Sayyaf, suspected of close ties with al Qaeda and the regional militant group Jemaah Islamiah</b>, is blamed for the worst terror attack in the Philippines, killing more than 100 people in the bombing of a passenger ferry near Manila bay in February 2004.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
More news on islamic militants in Phillipines, from 2006 and 2007:
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425824/901609
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Philippines arrests militant</b>
Nov 25, 2006
A fugitive Muslim militant, among members of Abu Sayyaf rebels who had beheaded a captive American tourist in the southern Philippines in 2001, was arrested in the south, army officials said on Saturday.
[...]
"(The arrested islamomilitant) Abbas was among Abu Sayyaf who kidnapped 20 American and Filipino tourists from a resort island on Palawan in 2001. We have information he took part in the beheading of American tourist Guillermo Sobero on Basilan."
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Also http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425824/826784 - Muslim rebels killed in Philippines (Sep 2006)
Recently:
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425822/962105
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Top Philippines' militant killed</b>
Jan 17, 2007
The Philippines said on Wednesday that troops had killed the top planner of the country's most deadly Islamic militant group in a clash at a rebel jungle camp in the south-west.
Abu Sulaiman, one of the top five leaders of the Abu Sayyaf militant group and who is believed to have links with al Qaeda, was killed in a gun battle on Tuesday on the island of Jolo, military chief General Hermogenes Esperon told reporters.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->What a track record for the Religion of Peace: the list of countries affected by global islamoterrorism is never-ending.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Hundreds flee Philippine clashes</b>
Feb 13, 2007
Hundreds of people have fled a village in the southern Philippines after troops stormed a Muslim rebel base, hunting for dozens of prisoners who escaped from jail earlier this month, the rebels and officials said on Tuesday.
Tanks rolled into the remote village on the island of Mindanao as soldiers shelled positions of the <b>Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)</b>, with 105mm howitzers, Mohaqher Iqbal, an official from the group said.
<b>The MILF, the Philippines' largest Muslim separatist group</b>, has a shaky ceasefire with the government of the largely Catholic country.
There were no casualties reported but more than 200 families starting fleeing their homes and farms before daybreak on Sunday when soldiers launched an offensive in the area, Iqbal said.
"We're strongly protesting the indiscriminate use of force," said Iqbal, who also heads the rebels' peace negotiating panel. "They're putting at risk the innocent Muslim communities and threatening the peace process."
But the Philippine military denied targetting the MILF and said it was pursuing a group of 50 prisoners who escaped from a local jail on February 2.
"Our pursuit operations were not directed at them but against those who escaped from the provincial jail in Kidapawan," army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Julieto Ando said, adding soldiers had come under heavy gunfire while approaching the village.
The government and the MILF are trying to revive peace talks stalled since May 2006 due to differences over a proposed deal on territory in the south.
But efforts have been complicated by intermittent clashes between the rebels, soldiers and militias since January.
Iqbal said the rebels' ceasefire panel had filed an official protest, asking the military to stop attacking rebel positions.
Separately, US-trained Philippine troops killed two militants of the smaller but most violent Abu Sayyaf group during a 90-minute gun battle in the jungles of Jolo island, also in the troubled south of the country.
Brigadier-General Reynaldo Mapagu said soldiers on a training mission chanced upon a 40-member Abu Sayyaf group preparing for lunch.
"We didn't lose any soldier but we are believed to have inflicted more casualties on their side," Mapagu told reporters in Manila.
<b>Abu Sayyaf, suspected of close ties with al Qaeda and the regional militant group Jemaah Islamiah</b>, is blamed for the worst terror attack in the Philippines, killing more than 100 people in the bombing of a passenger ferry near Manila bay in February 2004.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
More news on islamic militants in Phillipines, from 2006 and 2007:
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425824/901609
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Philippines arrests militant</b>
Nov 25, 2006
A fugitive Muslim militant, among members of Abu Sayyaf rebels who had beheaded a captive American tourist in the southern Philippines in 2001, was arrested in the south, army officials said on Saturday.
[...]
"(The arrested islamomilitant) Abbas was among Abu Sayyaf who kidnapped 20 American and Filipino tourists from a resort island on Palawan in 2001. We have information he took part in the beheading of American tourist Guillermo Sobero on Basilan."
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Also http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425824/826784 - Muslim rebels killed in Philippines (Sep 2006)
Recently:
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425822/962105
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Top Philippines' militant killed</b>
Jan 17, 2007
The Philippines said on Wednesday that troops had killed the top planner of the country's most deadly Islamic militant group in a clash at a rebel jungle camp in the south-west.
Abu Sulaiman, one of the top five leaders of the Abu Sayyaf militant group and who is believed to have links with al Qaeda, was killed in a gun battle on Tuesday on the island of Jolo, military chief General Hermogenes Esperon told reporters.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->What a track record for the Religion of Peace: the list of countries affected by global islamoterrorism is never-ending.