Five Philippine soldiers were killed and six others wounded in a clash with the country’s largest Muslim guerrilla group on Tuesday, the military said.Fighting erupted at dawn between a military special forces unit and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on the southern island of Basilan, said the regional military spokesman. “Yes, they (military) attacked our forces. So far, no casualties on our side,” the rebel spokesman said. The rebel group is observing a ceasefire amid peace talks with the Philippine government, and al-Haq accused the military of violating the truce.
He, however, rejected the ceasefire violation charge. Al-Barka is a frequent flash point of a decades-long MILF armed insurgency that has claimed about 150,000 lives across the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines. The rebellion began as an independence bid but now seeks self-rule for the region’s large Muslim minority. In recent years Basilan has also become a hotbed of the Abu Sayyaf, Islamist militants that began operating two decades ago. The military said the group was set up with seed funds provided by a nephew of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The militants often resort to kidnappings, mainly targeting foreigners and Christians, to raise funds from ransoms.
