47 soldiers, MILF rebels killed

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — At least 47 Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas and government troops have been killed since Friday as a result of "Operation Thunderstorm" mounted by the military on an MILF camp in Sultan Gumander town in Lanao del Sur, officials said yesterday.

The military offensive is a "preemptive assault" that aims to flush out Abu Sayyaf bandits led by Isnilon Hapilon who are taking refuge in the MILF camp there, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Benjamin Defensor said.

An official of the Army’s 4th Infantry "Diamond" Division, however, denied that 17 soldiers were killed in the fighting.

"We are actually dominating the battlefield and we have established strength on the ground," Marawi-based Army’s 401st Infantry Battalion commander Col. Ernesto Boac said in a telephone interview. "There is no truth to reports of soldiers getting killed."

Maj. Apolinar Aquino, commander of the 29th Infantry Battalion based in Pualas, Lanao del Sur, said 30 MILF fighters were killed in continuous shelling by government troops of the MILF’s 108th base command on Mt. Palao.

MILF’s 108th base command, formerly known as the separatist movement’s fourth division, is led by Commanders Sawak and Aloy.

Aquino said the shelling was conducted on the mountain summit by two SF bomber and gunner planes intermittently bombarding the MILF camp with 105-mm. howitzers and 81-mm. cannon from Sunday morning to late yesterday.

The attack planes were backed up by OV-10 bombers and MG-520 attack helicopters, AFP spokesman brig. Gen. Eduardo Purificacion said.

"We have monitored that, initially, there were 20 of the (MILF) killed, but we cannot ascertain the exact number of dead. We believe there are more casualties due to the (severity) of the bombardment," Aquino added. The ground troop assault has not yet started and the MILF are just waiting in ambush, he said.

In a report to Camp Aguinaldo, Army 4th Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Alfonso Dagudag said Hapilon’s group was carrying at least P5 million in cash when they joined up with the MILF fighters led by Commander Bravo.

Dagudag said Hapilon promised to share his loot with MILF and MNLF men there in exchange for shelter. "Apparently, Hapilon got greedy," Dagudag said, "after repeated exchanges, Commander Bravo and his men decided to mortar Hapilon’s position."

"We did not draw first blood. They did that to themselves," Boac said, adding that infighting broke out between the two Muslim groups.

The infighting, he said, lasted about an hour during which the military’s first wave of attack inched to its target at 6:20 a.m.

Boac added that his troops pounded the MILF camp at 8 a.m., after the infighting had died down. According to Purificacion, "a tactical alliance was already forming... that’s why we preempted any untoward atrocities they might have been planning.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied the military’s statement on MILF losses, adding that the military is just plucking numbers out of thin air. "How could they know how many of our men are dead if they have not yet entered our camp?" he asked, The body count, Kabalu said, is a mere propaganda tool of the military.

The military gleaned its information on the MILF fatalities by monitoring MILF radio communication from the camp under siege, officials said. The radio transmissions included the MILF body count.

Kabalu said 17 soldiers belonging to the 67th and 29th Infantry Battalions, including an MILF integree identified as Totong Lucman, were killed in fierce clashes Saturday morning.

He also said a tank was destroyed when MILF fighters ambushed it along the highway in Malabang town in Lanao del Sur.

Boac denied Kabalu’s claim, saying the MILF spokesman’s statement was made only to bolster the morale of MILF fighters and supporters.

Kabalu said the MILF will file a protest against the AFP before the Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCH) of the GRP-MILF peace panels. The MILF is protesting the military’s violation of the ceasefire agreement forged on Aug. 7, 2001.

"If the military was running after Abu Sayyaf members, the AFP should have first allowed the government and MILF panels to validate if, indeed, local MILF forces were harboring Abu Sayyaf members in their area," Kabalu said.

The military’s 4th Infantry battalion is also set to file a formal protest against the MILF for violating the 2001 ceasefire agreement by massing up forces and building new camps in Lanao del Sur.

AFP Southern Command (Southcom) chief Lt. Gen. Ernesto Carolina said the military’s protest has been forwarded to the CCH.

The MILF’s establishment of new training structures prompted the military to launch its merciless offensive on Saturday, military officials said.

Military suspicions of an MILF-Abu Sayyaf linkup were bolstered by the kidnapping of four Mindanao State University (MSU) teachers in Marawi City last month. The kidnappers, he said, brought their captives near the area where government forces found other clues indicating a tie-up between the two Muslim groups.

The MILF also sought a joint probe into the circumstances that led to the recent clashes, Kabalu said, maintaining that government troops provoked the hostilities. The rebels and soldiers were squabbling for control over strategic spots surrounding a guerrilla enclave in Sultan Gumander, he added.

Kabalu said the MILF forces in Sultan Gumander have maintained a defensive posture for over two years, but were forced to engage the advancing soldiers to defend their territory.

Military intelligence revealed that Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon and his group were hiding in the MILF camp after they eluded the offensive against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan island.

Carolina said the military offensive on the MILF camp also led to their discovery of the latest tactical alliance between the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf in Central Mindanao.

"We have conducted a preemptive strike," Carolina said of the siege on the MILF camp. "Intelligence report points that this is not only (an) MILF organization. There are Abu Sayyaf (members there). This confirms the reports we’ve been getting in the past (about) the alliance between the Abu Sayyaf group and the MILF."

Carolina could not say whether the alliance is organizational or tactical in nature, but added it is unlikely that the hierarchy of the Muslim separatist movement is unaware of the shelter provided by the MILF 108th Base Command.

The military also suspects that the MILF camp has been receiving foreign funding for the training and construction of new structures in the town of Sultan Gumander. "We have gotten aerial photographs," Carolina said. — With Paolo Romero, Roel Pareño, John Unson