Philippines launches air attack on rebels

Thousands of people have fled fighting between soldiers and rebels, a battle that included a military air attack -- the first such assault in three years -- in the southern Philippines. Casualties in the fighting between 200 police and military commandos and the rebels were two soldiers and six rebels, a report by The Manila Times newspaper stated. No civilians were reported killed. Two OV-10 attack planes bombed a remote village on the edge of Payao town, Zamboanga Sibugay province, on Mindanao island, where Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels have been entrenched since last week, Philippine army spokesman Maj. Harold Cabunoc said. "The bombing attacks began at 11:30 a.m.," Cabunoc said. "About 100 heavily armed bandits are holed up in their bunkers and running trenches." Government forces launched their attack on a rogue element of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has been in various cease-fires and discussions with the federal government in Manila for several years. Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, the regional military spokesman, said the rogue MILF rebels were involved in kidnapping and other criminal activities, as well as being suspected of an ambush last week that killed four soldiers and four policemen. The air raids were the first against the MILF since 2008 and intended to flush out MILF leader Waning Abdulsalam and several others who are wanted by authorities for kidnappings and killings on Mindanao. But MILF spokesman Von Al-Haq said the government effectively tore up a cease-fire agreement by forcing MILF members into an unwanted gun battle. "The military violated the truce and MILF forces in the area were ordered to defend themselves from attacks," he said. Philippines President Benigno Aquino said the fighting isn't aimed at mainstream MILF members but at members of Abu Sayyaf believed to be in the area. "We will not pursue all-out war; we will instead pursue all-out justice," he said. "I have instructed intensified operation against all these criminal elements. The mailed fist of the state will be brought to bear upon them so that justice may be served. There is no question that the state will find them. The only remaining question is when. There will be sacrifices in addressing this decades-old problem. We expect everyone to understand this, and are confident of the cooperation of the citizenry," Aquino said. Aquino singled out Abu Sayyaf commander Ibrahim Malat Sulayman, wanted on nine counts of murder, as the main target of the pursuit operation. The al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf, regarded as a terrorist organization by the United States and the Philippines, has been accused of masterminding some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country. One of the worst assaults took place in February 2010. An Abu Sayyaf group killed at least 11 people, including a 1-year-old child, in what may have been a revenge attack at 4 a.m. in a small village near Maluso town on the southern Basilan Island. Between 11 and 17 people are said to have been wounded, including four children aged 1 to 11. Last month government troops killed an Abu Sayyaf leader, Imram Asgari, in a clash in a village about 20 miles outside Zamboanga City. Critics of Aquino's peace process with the MILF point to the killings last week as reason for ending talks with the rebels, something which was a major plank in the president's election campaign in June 2010. Aquino secretly met Al Haj Murad Ibrahim, MILF chairman, in Tokyo in August, saying they both would speed up peace negotiations. The two-hour meeting -- described by The Manila Times newspaper as a "coup" for Aquino -- was conducted at a hotel near Narita International Airport. Between 120,000 and 150,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the struggle in which rebels seek an independent Mindanao region in 30 years of fighting.