ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Sept. 17, 2013) – A stray bullet had killed a two-year old Filipino child late on Monday in the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga where troops are fighting separatist rebels, police said.
Police, quoting Mayor Maria Isabelle Salazar, said the child was hit in the head by the stray bullet during the gun exchange between the government forces and Moro National Liberation Front rebels. No other details were released by the police about the victim, but four civilians had been killed in the fighting.
The fighting erupted on September 9 after hundreds of rebels led by Ustadz Haber Malik occupied several villages and seized civilians and use them as shield.
MNLF chieftain Nur Misuari, who signed a peace accord with Manila in 1996, accused the Aquino government of reneging on the peal deal and launched a new rebellion, the second in more than a decade. In 2001, loyal forces of Misuari also attacked military bases in Zamboanga City and Jolo town in Sulu province and the clashes killed over 100 people.
Two MG-520 helicopters on Monday fired rockets on MNLF targets in the villages of Santa Barbara and Santa Catalina to allow troops and armoured vehicles to advance in areas held by rebels.
Police said dozens of rebels had been killed and arrested and that security forces had recovered assorted MNLF weapons that included a Barrett sniper rifle and a machine gun. (Mindanao Examiner)
20