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| Southeast Asia |
| Three Killed as Muslim Rebels Mass in Philippines |
| 2003-02-10 |
| Muslim guerrillas killed three Philippine soldiers in an ambush Monday as thousands of troops massed within sight of rebel positions to head off sympathy attacks if the United States goes to war with Iraq, officials said. So there's no link between Iraq and terrorist's, huh? The ambush of the soldiers by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the tense standoff on the southern island of Mindanao came as Manila linked an Iraqi diplomat to another Muslim group blamed for a bomb blast in October that killed a U.S. soldier and two Filipinos. Eight other members of an army engineering unit were wounded when they were set upon during a morning jog by fighters from the MILF, which the military has linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. But government peace negotiators said later they believed the situation had eased after talks between the two sides. "The situation has been clarified on the ground," presidential adviser for peace Eduardo Ermita told Reuters. "The skirmishes that had been feared may no longer take place. I think the situation has been defused." The ambush in southern Maguindanao province occurred 37 miles northwest of a marshy area near where 1,000 heavily armed MILF rebels and allied groups had massed in a bold challenge to the military, officials said. At least 17,000 villagers fled their homes around the town of Pikit, about 500 miles south of the capital, Manila, to avoid being caught in any crossfire between the rebels and more than 3,000 troops backed by artillery and helicopter gun ships. Massing is a bad idea for rebels, it makes you a better target "We are going to assault the area," Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes told reporters in Manila. "We cannot allow lawless elements to claim that they have camps." He was referring to an old rebel base in the area. But Manila found itself also nursing a diplomatic headache. Foreign Secretary Blas Ople summoned Iraqi charge d'affaires Samir Bolus and showed him an intelligence report alleging links between an embassy second secretary and the Abu Sayyaf, another radical group also with supposed ties to al Qaeda. Ople said intelligence officials had traced telephone calls between the staffer and the Abu Sayyaf. Monitoring their phones, are you? Good, like to hear that tape. "Bolus denied this. The Iraqi envoy said he will instruct the second secretary to cease and desist any activity that is harmful to Philippine-Iraq relations," Ople told reporters. "We didn't do it. And we won't do it again." An embassy staffer told Reuters in English: "I don't speak English. Mr. Bolus is out." WTF? MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied the rebels were massing their forces around Pikit for an offensive. "We have a substantial number of people there but they have been living there for years," Kabalu said by telephone. "It is the military which deployed troops around us. We are now eyeball to eyeball with each other." "It's the military's fault." The military said troops from three infantry divisions -- plus a brigade of Marines, 20 tanks, six fighter jets and six helicopter gun ships -- were ready for any assault. See comment on why massing is a bad idea. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 I don't see how sympathy attacks prove that Saddam has links with al Qaeda. It does prove that an attack on Iraq is likely to fuel the fire. |
| Posted by: Rizzo 2003-02-10 16:46:22 |
| #1 BOLUS? The guy's name is Bolus? That's gotta be a joke. Doesn't it? |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-02-10 12:53:58 |