Authorities halt clearing operations in Zamboanga due to bad weather

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - Authorities have temporarily suspended the clearing operations in southern city of Zamboanga where a three-week standoff took place between the government troops and the rogue rebels, due to inclement weather, local police said today.

Police Chief Inspector Ariel Huesca, Zamboang Peninsula public information chief, said Zamboanga City has been experiencing bad weather since Friday afternoon which hampers the clearing operations of the Task Force Suyud.

But he said that so far, the clearing teams were able to recover 280 unexploded ordnance, such as rifle grenade, hand grenade and 40 mm rounds used in grenade launcher, and 11 assorted firearms.

Huesca also said that the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory Office 9 also recovered and processed 156 cadavers since Day 1 of the Zamboanga crisis.

Of these figure, 146 were suspected members of the armed Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) under Nur Misuari and three of them were females; and 10 civilians and three of them were victims of explosion incident in Labuan village in the city.

The government declared the Zamboanga crisis over after 20 days since the standoff started on September 9 following the release of all the hostages whom the MNLF rebels used as their human shields.