Philippine retaliation kills 8 rebels in the south
And now for some good news.
April 15, 2007
MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine marines killed at least 8 Muslim rebels and captured two of their camps on Sunday in retaliation for a series of attacks that killed a child and two soldiers, military officials said.
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) commander Habier Malik and hundreds of followers fled to the jungles surrounding Panamao town on the remote southern island of Jolo after troops bombarded their bases.
Malik is a renegade member of the MNLF who is believed to have sheltered two suspected masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings. His group fired mortars on the marines’ headquarters on Friday night, killing a child that lived nearby.
His fighters later killed two soldiers and wounded eight in an ambush. Mortar rounds were also fired at a special forces’ base, injuring six soldiers.
Philippine troops overran his camp and another MNLF base killing at least 8 rebels and wounding 13.
“Malik is now isolated and on his own. Other MNLF commanders are not in favor of the actions taken by Malik and expressed that they will not support Malik,” Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro, a military spokesman, said.
Malik embarrassed the armed forces in February when he held a top general, a senior government official and their aides hostage for two nights. The captives were released unharmed after the government handed over money and sacks of food.
The Philippines, a largely Catholic country, has been trying to quell Muslim separatism for decades and signed a peace deal with the MNLF in 1996 that was meant to end a conflict that has killed over 120,000 people.
But the agreement was not properly implemented and there is sporadic fighting between government forces and disgruntled members of the MNLF.
Manila also suspects Malik and other MNLF forces of aiding the Abu Sayyaf, the country’s fiercest Muslim rebel group and members of Jemaah Islamiah, a regional terror network which uses Jolo as a base to plot and train.
Bacarro said Malik was believed to have sheltered Dulmatin and Umar Patek, members of JI who are suspected of planning the 2002 bombing on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed over 200 people.
Since August, the Philippines has poured over 8,000 troops onto Jolo to flush out the Abu Sayyaf and its JI partners.
The ground offensive is aided by U.S. special forces, who are constitutionally barred from fighting in the Philippines but who advise the troops.
Doctor Bulldog & Ronin 
15 April, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Hmm, Islam always wants to recapture lost lands (like Spain). I don’t recall the Phillipines ever being part of the ummah. Sounds like another case of Islamic imperialism running amok. And why is this form of real imperiailism not denonced by lefties? They only whine about imagined imperialism by the likes of the US I suppose.
16 April, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Islam always wants to recapture not only the lost land but also where they have been breeding like rats, ie increase their population, then they will start claim to that land of that country, always by saying they are being discriminated against , do not like living under non Muslim laws. Look what is happening in Southern Thailand? Malaysia, Indonesia originally were Buddhist countries with majority Buddhist population with the arrival of Islam/Muslims over the centuries, eventually getting rid of Buddhist. That is the biggest problem with Muslims. Another prime example is Pakistan ,Bangladesh and Kashmir all carved out of India, because of the population. I am afraid this may happen in the West one day, population game. Muslims know what they are doing, but unfortunately majority of the people in the West are still sleep, especially the Lefties.