MNLF FIGHTERS ATTACK SECOND TOWN

Basilan, (Philippine), 6 Dul-qa’dah 1434/12 September 2013 (MINA) – The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) have attacked a second town in the Philippines while they continue to hold scores of hostages in a standoff with government forces in a nearby city.

Roderick Furigay, the vice-mayor of Lamitan in Basilan province, told that rebels attacked the town early on Thursday. He claimed five people were missing and two had been wounded in the fighting.

Meanwhile, Philippines News Agency (PNA) reports, Senior Supt. Mario Dapilloza, Basilan Provincial Police Office director, said that three Scout Rangers were wounded in an encounter in encounter took place around 8:50 a.m. in Barangay Campo Uno, Lamitan City.

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Basilan is a boat ride away from Zamboanga city, where MNLF fighters have been holding scores of residents as hostages since Monday, when government troops repulsed their attempt to erect a rebel flag at city hall.

Troops have surrounded the fighters and their hostages in four coastal villages.

Last month, the MNLF issued new threats to secede by establishing its own republic.

However, its leader, Nur Misuari, has not appeared in public or issued any statement since about 200 of his alleged followers barged into Zamboanga’s coast early on Monday and clashed with soldiers and police.

The fighting left at least nine people dead and several wounded.

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The fighters took scores of residents hostage, holding them in houses and a mosque that have been ringed by troops.

President Benigno Aquino III said the top priority was the safety of the hostages and residents of the city.

Mar Roxas, Philippine interior secretary, said officials had opened talks with the rebels “at different levels”, including a commander loyal to Misuari, but added there had been no breakthrough.

The MNLF signed a 1996 peace accord with the government, but many of its fighters held on to their weapons and accused officials of reneging on a promise to develop an autonomous region for minority Muslims in the south of the predominantly Catholic Philippines.

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The group has said it was being left out in government’s negotiations with another fighter group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which broke away from the MNLF in the early 1980s. (T/P09/P04).

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)