| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Hostages freed amid fighting in Philippines |
| 2003-04-25 |
| Troops backed by helicopter gunships drove out Muslim separatist guerrillas from a highway they occupied in the southern Philippines after a day of intense fighting that left 18 people dead. As they fled, the rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) released scores of villagers, bus commuters and several policemen they had held hostage, local military commander Colonel Ernesto Boac said. About 500 MILF fighters yesterday took the people hostage and attacked government installations, blocking the 400km highway linking Iligan city in south-western Mindanao and Zamboanga City, the regional trading capital. The government repulsed the attacks using helicopter gunships. Relatives of the hostages said many of the captives escaped when the MILF rebels fled from the helicopter gunships. Gunships have that effect on people. It's so much easier killing unarmed villagers. Colonel Francisco Simbajon, the local military spokesman, said the bodies of 13 civilians and five MILF fighters were recovered although there are reports that the guerrillas suffered more casualties and carried them away. Hide your loses, SOP. Boac said the military were moving to secure power lines and communities in the south that might be attacked by the MILF. The rebels had toppled transmission towers in recent fighting. MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the guerrillas had withdrawn but denied that they had ever taken hostages. "Nope, we don't do that. Well, not very often." "The intention was to attack the military forces in the area," he said, adding that at least four soldiers were killed in their assault. He also said many of the civilians allegedly killed in the fighting were village militiamen trained and armed by the government to defend local communities from rebels. "We do not consider these people as civilians," he said. Or humans. |
| Posted by:Steve |