The Philippine military said on Thursday it had attacked a group of renegade Muslim rebels as they met two Indonesians suspected of taking part in the Bali bombings in October 2002 that killed 202 people. There was no immediate information on casualties after artillery, aircraft and helicopter gunships pounded a marshy area near Datu Piang town on the southern island of Mindanao. The military said two Indonesians from the regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI) -- Umar Patek and Dulmatin -- were with rogue rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who broke a truce by attacking an army outpost this month. Khadaffy Janjalani and Abu Sulaiman -- two leaders of Abu Sayyaf, a smaller group of Philippine Muslim rebels -- were also there, the military said. "The intelligence operation had determined the exact lair of this group of renegades and ranking leaders of the Abu Sayyaf and JI who were holed up in several houses," Lieutenant-General Alberto Braganza of the army's southern command told Reuters. | Sounds like they found a high command meeting. Be still my beating heart. |
Philippine officials say there are nearly three dozen Indonesian and Malaysian militants hiding and training with some MILF factions. The rebels deny having any formal ties with JI, which is associated with al Qaeda. | "Oh, sure, we know them, and get together for drinks, but it's nothing formal. I mean, it's not like we get dressed up or anything." |
The government and the MILF, the largest Muslim rebel group in this mainly Roman Catholic nation, are due to resume informal peace talks in Malaysia on Feb. 1 to try to end a 35-year insurgency that has claimed 120,000 lives. Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the MILF, said the rebels would protest over Thursday's military strikes. "This is a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement," he told Reuters by phone. "I checked with our truce panel and there was no prior coordination." | Like even the Phillipine Army was going to tell you they were going to attack. Who do you think they are, Saudi? |
The military said in a statement it had informed the MILF prior to the attack and assured the rebels it was aimed at the JI and Abu Sayyaf members suspected of being in the area. | OK. So. I was wrong. They are that stupid. |
Kabalu said Wahid Tundok, the commander of the rogue band of rebels, was not in Datu Piang town after being sidelined by the MILF leadership over the attack on the army outpost on Jan. 9 and 10 in which 13 soldiers and 15 militants were killed. Officials in the Philippines and Malaysia said at the time they did not expect that clash to derail the peace talks. But the attack by the rogue rebels, the worst violence during a 17-month truce, exposed weaknesses in the ability of MILF leaders to control their forces. Earlier this month Sidney Jones, Southeast Asia director for the International Crisis Group, cited Indonesian intelligence sources as saying Umar Patek and Dulmatin were the targets of a Philippine air force strike on Nov. 18 in central Mindanao. Jones said the two suspected Bali bombers were not JI members but belonged to a little-known Indonesian group called Banten that operated independently of the regional network. Beyond Umar Patek and Dulmatin, Philippine security forces are searching for two other unnamed Indonesian terror suspects. "There is an ongoing manhunt operation in central Mindanao," Chief Superintendent Ismael Rafanan, head of the national police intelligence group, said on Monday. "We're after the big fish." |