[ADN Kronos] At least 14 Muslim rebels were killed and 22 people injured in separate clashes with government forces in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday, quoted by GMANews TV.Four gunmen from the Al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group were killed and two Marines were wounded in fierce clashes over the weekend in the village of Paugan in Sulu's Parang town.
"As a result of the fighting, two soldiers were wounded and four enemies killed in Parang town. Their bodies were recovered by soldiers," GMANews quoted army spokeswoman for Western Mindanao Command, Steffani Cacho, as saying.
At least 10 separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters also died in clashes on Saturday in Bialong village in Maguindanao's Mamasapano town in Mindanao's troubled Muslim autonomous region, according to the army, cited by the media.
Army Colonel Jonathan Ponce, a spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division, said the fighting left 10 rebels dead and 20 more wounded. No military casualties were reported, he said.
"Elements of the 64th Infantry Battalion encountered a group of rogue MILF rebels numbering about 80 that resulted to killing of ten gunmen and 20 more wounded," he was quoted as saying. Only three bodies were recovered by troops, Ponce added.
Over 100 MILF and Abu Sayyaf gunmen have been killed in fighting in Sulu and Mindanao in recent months, according to the army.
The MILF also claimed to have killed dozens of soldiers; however, most of these claims had been denied by the military. Both groups accused each other of black propaganda.
| I didn't know propaganda came in colours. What's the difference between black and any other kind? |
| White propaganda's overt stuff, like the old Radio Moscow or current Rodong Sinmun, that honks the party line. Black propaganda pretends to be white, but its content is designed to alienate its intended audience: too stupid, arguments too easily seen through, too brutal, that sort of thing. There's also gray propaganda, which is when white (very occasionally black) propaganda is infiltrated and turned. That's a gross overview and somebody who actually knows something about the mechanics of it can explain it in more detail. |
Maguindanao is at the centre of the conflict, which escalated after a ruling last year the Philippines Supreme Court that blocked the expansion of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), where the country's Muslim minority lives.
Furious rogue MILF fighters burned down Catholic villages and local populations have been caught in the cross-fire between the army and the MILF rebels. At least 300,000 thousand people have been forced to abandon their homes in the province of Maguindanao alone, according to the MILF.
There are currently around 600,000 refugees in Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago, according to a report released last week by the Norwegian Refugee Council. The report described them as "the most neglected refugees in the world".