Posted on 04/24/2003 2:34:39 AM PDT by miltonim
ON A RAMPAGE
Muslim rebels kill 6, take cops, commuters hostage
PAGADIAN - Muslim separatists attacked a town and ambushed two buses in the southern Philippines, killing at least six people and taking policemen and commuters hostage, the military and rebels said Thursday.
Four people were killed when their bus was ambushed by guerillas from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Carmen town late Wednesday, the military said.
Two others were shot dead while travelling in another bus along a highway near Kulambugan town on Thursday, a rebel leader said.
The towns are in the southern island of Mindanao, where the 12,500-strong MILF has been fighting to set up an independent Islamic state since 1978.
An MILF commander Abdulrahman Macapaar said in a radio interview Thursday that his forces attacked Kulambugan town and shot up a passenger bus, killing two people, after the vehicle allegedly failed to stop at a rebel checkpoint.
He admitted that his forces wounded a large number of people aboard the bus and were holding several hostages in Kulambugan, near the southwestern city of Pagadian and located 760 kilometers (470 miles) from Manila.
Macapaar, known as Commander Bravo, warned the military not to attack his positions to avoid harming the hostages.
Regional military commander Major General Generoso Senga said among the four killed in the Carmen bus attack were a top district official, Dionisio Villaver, his son and their two security escorts.
The bus hit a landmine, which knocked it on its side, after which MILF forces blasted the stricken vehicle with rocket-propelled grenades and rifle fire, Senga said.
Nine people were wounded in the attack, he added.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu admitted that the MILF was behind both the attacks, saying they targetted district chief Villaver because he had supported a military offensive against the rebels.
The number of hostages taken in the Kulambugan attack could not be independently confirmed but sources said four policemen were held after their outpost was overrun by the rebels.
Traffic on the highway passing near Kulambugan town, where a bridge was allegedly blown up by the rebels, halted due to the attacks.
"Our purpose of staging these series of attacks starting today is to cripple the country's economy," rebel leader Macapaar said.
Kabalu denied that any hostages had been taken.
"The MILF is involved here. We do not deny that," Kabalu told Agence France-Presse.
The guerillas had gone on a rampage - firing mortars and burning and looting houses - during a brief visit by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the troubled south earlier this week.
Moronic Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
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