Manila - Fighting between Muslim separatist rebels and government troops in the southern Philippines escalated Friday as peace talks between the guerrillas and the government crumbled, military officials said. Army Brigadier General Jorge Segovia said the military launched air and ground bombardments against encampments of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in several provinces in the strife-torn southern region of Mindanao.
"Our air assets have been hitting their targets," he said. "We have been inflicting heavy casualties on their side. We will hunt them down. Their positions are military targets."
Army Colonel Marlou Salazar, a ground commander, said soldiers overran on Friday an abandoned satellite camp of the MILF in Datu Piang town in Maguindanao province, 960 kilometres south of Manila.
"The rebels have abandoned their satellite camp due to intense bombardment," he said. "Our soldiers have taken over the camp."
Sporadic clashes were reported in seven towns in Maguindanao where 16 MILF guerrillas and one soldier have been killed in the past three days.
Lieutenant Colonel Julieto Ando, a regional military spokesman, said 11 soldiers were wounded in an attack by the rebels in Maguindanao's Guindulungan town Thursday evening.
"The rebels were trying to take control of the highway," he said. "Our wounded soldiers have been rushed to a military hospital."
In Datu Piang, soldiers rescued two broadcast journalists and three civilians trapped in a house by fighting, Ando said.
Firefights were also reported in Midsayap town in North Cotabato province and nearby Kabuntalan town in Shariff Kabunsuan province as the military stepped up offensives against MILF rebels who have launched a series of attacks since last week.
The attacks have killed 102 people and displaced nearly 150,000 residents in the provinces of North Cotabato, Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte and Sarangani.
The hostilities in Mindanao escalated when the Supreme Court early this month stopped the signing of a controversial land deal between the MILF and the Philippine government over questions about the agreement's constitutionality.
The agreement on ancestral domain would have expanded an existing autonomous Muslim region in Mindanao.
On Wednesday, the government announced it was canceling the agreement on ancestral domain because of strong opposition to it but vowed to renegotiate a new deal with the MILF.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said her government was "committed to the peace process in Mindanao" but stressed that MILF forces who were behind the attacks there "must account for all their actions."
"We are not at war with the Muslim communities," she said in a speech Thursday. "The recent developments in the south lead to a change in the basic premise of our peace efforts. The focus of our talks shall shift from armed groups to the community."
Arroyo said that under the shift in focus, the government would work on disarming, demobilizing and rehabilitating the armed groups in Mindanao while stepping up dialogue with communities to achieve political and social changes.
