Thirty-two people have been killed in fresh fighting between the government troops and Muslim rebels in south Philippines over the week, a military official said Friday.
Major Peter Edwin Navarro, a military spokesman, told reporters that in the latest clashes on late Thursday, nine members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest rebel group in the Philippines, and one soldier were killed in a town of Maguindanao province in Mindanao region.
Sporadic clashes in towns and villages of Maguindanao province this week killed at least 19 MILF rebels and injured three soldiers, although MILF claimed higher casualty on the government side.
Over the decades, the 12,000-member MILF has been fighting for an independent state or, more recently, a region with higher autonomy for Muslims in the south.
MILF reached a cease-fire with the government in 2003, but skirmishes between the two sides had never stopped along way with off-and-on peace talks with the government. Violence escalated in Mindanao after the government failed to sign a territorial pact with the rebel group.
MILF fighters were accused of attacking a string of towns and villages in the Mindanao region last month. Nearly 200 people, including three dozen civilians, were killed in the clashes as the military stepped up clearance operation against radical members of MILF.
More than half a million people have also reportedly been affected by the military conflict.
Source:Xinhua
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