Military repels Moro guerrillas

DATU UNSAY, Maguindanao — Hundreds of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels, who had occupied two supposedly demilitarized hilly areas here for five days, fled to the hinterlands after soldiers and policemen pounded their positions with mortars and shoulder-fired 40-mm grenade projectiles yesterday.

Men of the Army’s 604th Infantry Brigade took over the two strategic hills at about 9 a.m., two hours after they bombarded the areas.

The rebels, led by Amiril Kato Ombra, said to have links with the Jemaah Islamiyah, were last seen converging on high ground about five kilometers east of the hilly areas they had occupied to stop government workers from constructing a farm-to-market road.

Six rebels were reportedly wounded in the military offensive.

Sources in the provincial peace and order council said the Moro rebels opposed the construction of the farm-to-market road fearing that it would make them accessible to the police and the military.

Datu Unsay officials said they have asked the Army’s 6th Infantry Division to put up a detachment in the hilly areas to prevent the MILF rebels from returning there.

"Stopping the road project is not just a violation of the ceasefire, but an affront to the government," Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan told The STAR in the vernacular.

Earlier, there were sporadic skirmishes between the marauding MILF rebels and armed villagers in Mamasapano town, where another group of guerrillas occupied Barangay Old Maganoy and blocked portions of a major thoroughfare.

Two guerrillas were killed, and four others were wounded in the running gunbattles as the villagers and policemen thwarted an attempt by the rebels Thursday night to take over the town hall of Mamasapano.

Members of the joint coordinating committee on the cessation of hostilities and the Malaysian-led international monitoring team oversaw yesterday the return of the rebels to their camps.

Local officials said the presence of the MILF fighters in the town forced some 3,000 people to flee their homes for fear of getting caught in the crossfire.

The office of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan distributed relief goods to the evacuees yesterday. — With Roel Pareño