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| Southeast Asia |
| Buliok âcasualtiesâ mount, but where are the bodies? |
| 2003-03-14 |
| DOUBT clouded reports about the fighting between the military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Buliok Complex in North Cotabato after both parties failed to back their casualty claims with actual body counts. Both the military and the MILF have claimed they were able to kill more than a hundred of their enemies in three days, even as each side denied losing that many men on the battlefield. Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division, admitted that the military has no body count of the 115 MILF rebels that it claims to have killed since Monday. He said the figure was based on intercepted radio signals from the enemy, reports from the field and from recovered bodies. Of the last, Ando said, they have âplentyââwithout elaborating further. âWe were able to recover some bodies and we were surprised about how young they were. Probably in their late teens,â Ando said. âThe exact number [of fatalities] will come out during the clearing operations after the clash.â The Vietnamese had the unpleasant habit of drafting them very young, too. Dunno if this is genuine or not, but it sounds right... Interviewed on the radio, Mohaqher Iqbal, chief of the information bureau of the MILF, also admitted that the rebels do not know the total number of slain soldiers since the military renewed its offensive Sunday. MILF spokesman Ustadz Eid Kabalu had said they had killed more than 100 soldiers and wounded several others. Uhhh... Let's just say "heavy fighting" until it's sorted out, okay? In Pikit the government on Friday sent about 500 more soldiers inside Buliok Complex. This developed as the military claimed 40 more rebels killed in a military air assault on the Liguasan Marsh, a known MILF sanctuary. Kabalu admitted there was a daylong encounter, but said that since the start of the conflict this week, the MILF had suffered only 12 fatalities. Sounds like they're doing this as a ground operation with air support. They still haven't caught on to the combined arms thing... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |