MILF ready to defend itself against new military offensive

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said it will defend itself in Basilan in the face of impending major offensive by government forces as a result of the "beheading" of 11 Marines.

The Marines were beheaded after an encounter last July 10 in Guinanta, Al-Baraka town in this island province.

Khaled Musa, MILF committee on information vice chairman, said Saturday that the massing of troops by the government is another display of blatant disregard of the existing ceasefire between the MILF and the government.

Musas accused the government of deliberately luring the MILF into the firefight last Tuesday by committing a number of violations of the truce.

He added the fighting was the consequence of this utter disregard of the ceasefire agreement by the Philippine Marines.

"Who fired first is immaterial, because there were three prior infractions of the ceasefire by the Philippine Marines triggering the firefight that led to the killing of '23 Marines' and 27 high-powered firearms including one M-60mm mortar," he said.

However, he said that the MILF has already composed an investigating team that would probe the beheading of 11 soldiers after the fighting died down completely.

Meanwhile, Sattar Alih, member of the Local Monitoring Team in Basilan, said that all MILF forces involved in the fighting totally withdrew from the battle scene at 6:00 pm on July 10.

He added that by 9:00 pm, government soldiers returned to the battle area and Colonel Almadrones called him that ten Marines were "missing" and asked the MILF whether they were in their custody or captured. The MILF answered in the negative.

He said it was only the following day, July 11 that the beheading of the Marines was reported.

As this developed, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) ordered the pre-positioning of troops in Basilan in preparation for a full-scale offensive against militants behind the brutal killing of 14 Marines last Tuesday.

Hundreds of additional Marines and an Army brigade have been deployed, including one Marine battalion which will beef up the forces of the 1st Marine Brigade in the area.