Army troops, MILF rebels clash anew in Mindanao
MANILA, Philippines — Army troops pursuing close to 50 escapees from a provincial jail clashed with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Kabacan town, North Cotabato province on Thursday, a regional military spokesman said.
There were no reported casualties in the 30-minute gunbattle, which started at 12:55 p.m. when MILF troops fired mortar rounds on troops from the Army’s 38th Infantry Battalion in the subvillage of Nasag, Kilagasan village, Lieutenant Colonel Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said in a text message.
The rebel forces withdrew to the southwest direction, Ando said.
It was the second clash between government forces and the Muslim separatists in the province in less than two weeks. In late January, the military bombed MILF positions in Midasayap town to flush out suspected criminals.
The encounter also came despite government’s efforts to protect the ceasefire between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the MILF. Several days after the Midsayap encounters, two Army companies were sent to Midsayap to prevent further violence.
The clashes came amid efforts to restart formal peace negotiations between the government and the MILF, which bogged down in late 2006 after the two parties failed to agree on the scope of the “ancestral domain” that the rebels were claiming in the southern Philippines.
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