ZAMBOANGA CITY CRISIS IS OVER
Zamboanga City, Philippine, 22 Dhul Qa’ida 1434/28 September 2013 (MINA) – Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Voltaire Gazmin on Saturday (28/9) announced that the standoff between the Philippines military and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) fighters in Zamboanga City is now over.
He added that no more firefights took place last night, Philippines News Agency (PNA) quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
“Sec. Gazmin said that MNLF Commander Habier Malik still uncaptured, but they are still verifying if one of the bodies they saw in Sta. Catalina is Malik’s,” government news channel PTV-4 said in its Twitter account.
The authorities are now on the process of identifying the recovered remains of slain MNLF fighters to determine whether or not one of them is Habier Malik.
Malik is the leader of the hundreds of MNLF fighters that infiltrated this city last Sept. 9. He is the trusted aide of MNLF founding-chair Nur Misuari.
Police records showed that 167 MNLF fighters were killed as of noon Saturday.
Gazmin said the identification process “will take a while” since they are still getting all the records Malik have filed in getting the documents he needed.
Gazmin, where he helped oversee a government offensive and hostage rescue mission by about 4,500 government troops and police, said 195 hostages were rescued, escaped or were freed, Aljazeera reports.
The gunbattles, including exchanges of grenade and mortar fire, forced more than 100,000 residents – nearly 10 percent of the population of the bustling port city – to flee their homes to emergency shelters, including Zamboanga’s main sports complex. Thousands of houses were destroyed in the fighting.
Police and troops still have to clear areas of the dangerous leftovers of the fighting, including unexploded bombs and possible booby traps, Gazmin said.
The conflict lasted for more than 20 days and resulted in the death and wounding of more than 400 plus combatants and civilians. (T/P09/P03)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
