MILF Terrorists Attach Philipino Villages

Around 200 MILF, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, terrorists attack several villages in southern Philipines killing a local official and burning houses. A terrorist spokesman told the the Internation Herald Tribune that the attack was carried out by a renegade commander and was not sanctioned by the terrorist group leaders.

Either the terrorist spokesman is lying and the group's leaders did have knowledge of the attacks or the group has a sizeable number of terrorists who wish to continue on fighting instead of reaching a peace deal with the government.

Besides, whenever has a peace deal with a terrorist group ever worked out?Internation Herald Tribune

Muslim rebels attacked several southern coastal townships Monday, killing a local official and burning houses in a sharp escalation of fighting amid uncertainty over a fragile peace process, officials said.


Regional military spokesman Maj. Armand Rico said the towns of Kulambugan and Kauswagan in Lanao del Norte province came under attack early Monday from renegade forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.


He said the rebels executed the leader of Libertad village in Kauswagan town. Government troops in armored vehicles fought the rebels in efforts to push them back into the hinterland, where they maintain camps. Local officials ordered the evacuation of residents from nearby communities to avoid casualties.

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Retired Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, head of the government's negotiating team with the rebels, called the attack on the towns a violation of a 2003 cease-fire. He said government officials were trying to get through to the rebels to get them to control their fighters.


"This is an act that must not be tolerated," Garcia said.


Officials in the predominantly Christian cities in the southern Philippines the traditional homeland of minority Muslims have strongly opposed a preliminary accord forged between the government and the rebels in a bid to end the decades-old insurgency for Muslim self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation.