2 MILF rebels killed in renewed hostilities

COTABATO CITY – Two Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels were killed while a soldier was wounded in renewed hostilities in Midsayap, North Cotabato on Sunday.

Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the encounter in Barangay Mudseng in Midsayap erupted when MILF rebels opened fire on soldiers sent to verify the presence of a band of heavily armed bandits in the area.

Ando said two rebels were killed.

The patrolling soldiers were forced to return fire after sensing that the MILF guerrillas in Barangay Mudseng were bent on inflicting casualties as indicated by their reckless firing of automatic weapons.

"The soldiers were there in that barangay just to perform an anti-crime mission, not to fight the MILF forces," Ando said, adding that a soldier was wounded in the ensuing firefight.

Ando said soldiers recovered from the scene three assault rifles – M16, M14 and M203 – which the rebels abandoned as they fled after seeing their two companions felled by Army snipers.

He added that they have been receiving persistent feedback from Muslim villagers in the neighboring Barangays Mudseng and Rangaben that armed factions there have also been coddling some of the 48 inmates that bolted the North Cotabato provincial jail last Feb. 2.

Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman, said the soldiers who clashed with the rebels in Barangay Mudseng intruded into supposedly recognized guerrilla enclaves covered by the truce.