Military aids MILF despite bloody clash

Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine soldiers rescued members of a Muslim armed group from rival extremists despite frayed ties over the killing of 44 policemen last month, a military report said Sunday.

Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is engaged in a peace process with the government, were besieged by the rival Abu Sayyaf group in the troubled island of Basilan on Saturday, requiring military intervention, said a statement from the regional military command.

“Three platoons… along with armored vehicles together with some members of MILF in the area… proceeded to the encounter site to reinforce the beleaguered MILF members who were engaged in the firefight,” the statement said.

One wounded MILF fighter was evacuated by the soldiers who later overran an Abu Sayyaf camp and are believed to have killed one Abu Sayyaf leader, the report added.

MILF members and other Muslim fighters ambushed and killed 44 police commandos while they were on an anti-terror operation in the southern island of Mindanao on January 25.

The incident violated a ceasefire between the government and the MILF and threatened President Benigno Aquino III’s efforts to complete a peace process which would create an autonomous Muslim area in the south.

The MILF have said they were only acting in self-defense but the killings have led many people to question their sincerity.

Aquino has said the peace process must continue to avoid a return to decades of fighting that claimed tens of thousands of lives over previous decades.

It was unclear why the MILF members were fighting guerrillas of the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group with ties to the Al-Qaeda network who have been blamed for the worst terror attacks in the country’s history.

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