The Philippine military will step up offensives against rebels after it lost 26 soldiers in the heaviest fighting in the volatile south in nearly three years, the head of the armed forces said on Friday.
General Hermogenes Esperon said two extra battalions would be sent to the remote southern island of Jolo, where clashes between troops and Muslim separatists killed at least 58 people on Thursday.
"I'm very sad but it doesn't mean we will give up," Esperon told reporters. "We will not stop, we will go after them. We expect fiercer battles." The army shelled Muslim rebel positions and raked them with helicopter fire overnight but suspended operations on Friday following a request from the provincial governor.
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a Muslim rebel group that signed a peace deal with the largely Catholic central government in 1996, said its members were involved and that it had asked the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to help stop the fighting. "We informed the OIC of the current situation through e-mails and a fax direct to Jeddah," said Hatimil Hassan, the MNLF deputy head and an elected member of the regional legislative assembly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
About 13,000 Philippine troops are on the islands to contain about 2,000 rebels. About 100 US special forces are also on Jolo to help train the Philippine military but they are forbidden from fighting under Philippine law.
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