Philippines says Muslim rebels kill 19 soldiers
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The Philippine military accused Muslim rebels on Wednesday of 'murdering' six soldiers who were taken captive during a clash on a troubled island in which at least 13 other troops died.
Tuesday's fighting was one of the worst outbreaks of violence between the government and separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas in years, and further complicated peace talks that were already deadlocked.
The Philippine military said troops were on the hunt for members of the smaller Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group in the jungles of southern Basilan island when an MILF unit ambushed them, triggering a nine-hour clash.
Twelve soldiers were killed on the battlefield while another was later declared dead, regional military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang said.
The military initially reported on Wednesday morning that another 10 soldiers remained missing, six of whom had been taken captive by the MILF rebels.
However army spokesman Antonio Parlade said in Manila on Wednesday afternoon that the bodies of those six had since been recovered.
"They were definitely murdered... those were the six that were were still alive last night," Parlade told reporters. The fate of the other four missing soldiers remained unknown.
The 12,000-strong MILF has waged a rebellion since the 1970s for an independent Islamic state in the southern third of the mainly Catholic Philippines.
The rebellion has left about 150,000 people dead, with most of the deaths occurring in the 1970s when an all-out war raged.
The two sides signed a truce in 2003 that paved the way for peace talks and the MILF says it is now willing to settle for limited autonomy rather than full independence.
But the ceasefire is frequently marred by clashes across the vast southern Mindanao region that Muslims claim as their ancestral homeland, and peace talks have this year again run into a familiar deadlock.
The small island of Basilan is one of the most violent-plagued in Mindanao, and military spokesman Cabangbang said dozens of soldiers as well as rebels had died in fighting there this year.
However Tuesday's clash was the most deadly on Basilan since 2007, when an MILF commander ordered his men to behead 14 Marines during a firefight.
Cabangbang said the MILF commander accused of the 2007 atrocity, Dan Laksaw Ansawi, also led Tuesday's MILF assault.
Ansawi was captured following the 2007 attack but escaped from a Basilan jail in 2009 while on trial for the beheadings.
The military has often accused the MILF of providing shelter to the Abu Sayyaf, which is blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks. However the MILF denied it was responsible for Tuesday's fighting.
MILF spokesman Von al Haq said the violence erupted after the soldiers strayed into rebel territory in violation of a ceasefire. He also said five rebels had died in the clashes.
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