19 MILF rebels killed, 9 others wounded, says AFP

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao – Nineteen Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas were killed while nine others were wounded in sporadic clashes with government troops in Maguindanao, the military said yesterday.

Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said around 100 MILF rebels led by commander Ameril Ombra Kato were chanced upon by government troops, triggering a day-long skirmish in the jungle boundaries of Datu Piang and Datu Saudi towns Friday.

Ando said the troops, supported by rocket-firing planes, chased the rebel group in three separate areas in a marshy area in Maguindanao.

“We launched an air assault to thwart reinforcement on the enemy side,” Ando said,

He said rebels customarily carry away their casualties, but civilian informants and intelligence sources reported that 19 guerrillas had been killed.

Eight of the rebel fatalities were identified as Kahar Obaida, Samsudin Antig, Sukarno Butukan, Andamen Umbal, Katip Abdullah, Okang Camison, Tingan Namlah, and Makabangen Andih. 

Ando said three of the nine wounded soldiers later rejoined the military operation against the rebels.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu, however, denied Ando’s report, dismissing it as “military propaganda.”

Ando said soldiers were checking reports by civilians that rebels were planning to attack military positions when they encountered the guerrillas led by Kato, one of three rebel commanders wanted by the government for leading the bloody rampage in Central Mindanao last August.            – With AP and AFP

“Our operations against Kato are ongoing,” Ando said. “They were mobile and encountered our troops going in their direction.”

Another encounter erupted at a riverside barangay in Datu Piang and a farming district in Mamasapano.

Seven rebels were wounded after government forces rained mortar fire on the rebel positions, officials said.

The government has suspended peace talks with the MILF and ordered a massive assault after Kato and fellow rebel leader Abdurahman Macapaar alias Commander Bravo launched a string of deadly attacks across Mindanao in August.

The rebels killed over 60 civilians, ransacked villages and burned over 100 homes in a deadly rampage condemned by international aid agencies. The attacks were the deadliest in the past five years.

The MILF said the attacks were carried out by commanders who were angered by the Supreme Court decision stopping the signing of the preliminary peace deal that would have given the MILF control over an expanded autonomous region in Central Mindanao.

The fighting has affected more than 600,000 people, many of whom remain in squalid evacuation camps, aid agencies and social workers said.