Thursday, May 22, 2003

US troops fair game for new rebel alliance

By Anthony Vargas, Correspondent and Karl B. Kaufman, Reporter

The New People’s Army (NPA) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) could launch joint attacks against US troops who would take part in a training exercise in Mindanao, a source in the NPA said on Wednesday.

Leaders of the two groups are weighing such attacks to help ease pressure on MILF rebels who are reeling under a fresh offensive by the military, the source said.

The NPA and the MILF are said to have entered into a tactical alliance against the Armed Forces, with communist rebels training separatist fighters in guerrilla warfare.

“There’s a possibility that the NPA and the MILF will conduct joint military operations against US troops in the Balikatan exercise,” the source said.

The training exercise is scheduled sometime this year in the Liguasan Marsh in Central Mindanao, an MILF stronghold overrun by the military in February.

The source said the NPA rebels are strengthening their forces in Mindanao in preparation for “sympathy attacks” against the government troops who are going after the MILF. “They are going to launch tactical offensives to at least divert the attention of the AFP from the MILF,” the source said.

The NPA-MILF alliance was forged some five years ago to stave off what the two groups perceive as the growing threat of US domination in Mindanao. Under the agreement, the two groups will provide refuge to each other’s members in the territories they control.

The NPA is active in Davao and Surigao provinces; the MILF controls areas in Cotabato, Lanao and Ma­guindanao.

The government broke off exploratory talks with the MILF earlier this month, blaming it for the bombings in Lanao del Norte and South Cotabato.

Talks with the NPA are also on hold.

Meanwhile casualties continued to mount on both sides as the military intensified its attacks on the MILF.

A ranking MILF leader and two of his men were killed as the military’s “punitive” offensives on selected MILF targets continue in Central Mindanao, the Armed Forces said Wednesday.

Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, the Armed Forces vice chief of staff and its spokesman, said Arimad Solaiman Lucsadatu alias Commander Syria, brother of Commander Yayah Lucsadatu, was killed in the attacks. Syria had been a target of a recent military manhunt.

In a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo on Wednesday, Garcia said Syria headed the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces of the MILF 4th Division, which operates in Lanao del Norte.

Syria was reportedly killed Tuesday morning in an encounter on the outskirts of Munai town in Lanao del Norte, where MILF rebels who attacked Maigo town last month were being pursued by government troops, according to the acting Army spokesman, Lt. Col. Joselito Kakilala.

Kakilala said men of the 4th Scout Ranger Battalion were conducting a combat operation when they caught up with the rebels in Barangay Lininding at around 9:35 a.m. Two Army soldiers–Cpl. Eric Jacosalem and Private First-Class Leo Navales–were severely wounded in the encounter.

Military offensives continue to flare up as the operation enters its sixth day today. MILF casualties are estimated to have reached at least 80, but Garcia said the estimate should not be given emphasis.

On Saturday, President Arroyo ordered a selective operation on “embedded terrorist cells” shortly before she flew to the United States to meet with President George W. Bush.

On Monday, government forces announced that they had overrun Munai, an MILF stronghold, in Lanao del Norte. Munai was reportedly the refuge of MILF rebels who attacked the towns of Maigo and Kolam­bugan last month.