Image is used for representational purpose only (Image source: AP)
MANILA: Philippine troops killed 10 suspected Islamist militants on Friday in the deadliest clash so far this year in the south, where troops are battling remaining rebels waging a largely weakened separatist insurgency, officials said.Decades of separatist violence in the south, home to the Muslim minority in the majority Roman Catholic country, largely subsided in 2014 after the largest armed group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which includes thousands of armed rebels, signed an Islamic autonomy deal with the government.However, a number of smaller armed groups, which refused to participate in the peace talks, continued to launch sporadic guerrilla attacks for a separate Islamic state.The latest clash began when suspected members of an Islamist separatist group called the Islamic State Maute opened fire on police officers and military forces who were trying to carry out arrest warrants for their commander for murder and other alleged crimes in a village in Lanao del Sur province, police Maj. Gen. Robert Alexander Morico said.Amirul Manjuranca and his fighters, who have allied with ISIS in the past, have been accused by the military of carrying out recent guerrilla attacks, including an ambush that killed four soldiers in nearby Lanao del Norte province in January, military officials said.
Manjuranka and nine other suspected militants, including four women, were killed in an hour-long gun battle in the village of Marantao, Morico and military officials said, adding that there were no casualties among government forces in the clash.“Our forces have struck a decisive blow, and we will continue to advance until lasting peace is fully secured,” said Army 1st Infantry Division Commander Maj. Gen. Igor Rey Barquillo Jr.
“It is justice for every fallen soldier, every grieving family, and every community that has suffered from terrorism.” Government forces confiscated four rifles, a pistol, a hand grenade and bomb parts, according to the army and police.The army said in a statement, without going into details, that an infant found at the battle site received unspecified medical treatment.The 2014 peace deal largely eased decades of intermittent fighting that had left tens of thousands of combatants and civilians dead, displaced large numbers of rural villagers and hampered development in a resource-rich region that includes some of the poorest areas in the country.The army is separately fighting a decades-long communist insurgency, which has also been greatly weakened by battle setbacks, infighting and surrenders.
