ILOILO CITY, Philippines, February 10 (IslamOnline.net) – Fierce fighting raged Thursday, February 10, between government soldiers and fighters of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the Mindanao island of Sulu for the fourth day running, reportedly leaving some 100 soldiers and fighters dead and injured.

President Gloria Arroyo said Thursday, February 10, that military operations in Sulu are not directed against the MNLF but the terrorists and criminals in the area.

“The situation in Sulu has brought together the forces of law against the forces of lawlessness. As we deal with the pockets of criminal and terrorist holdouts, we are keeping the line of the law firm with the full cooperation of the local governments, the peace constituencies and community leaders,” Arroyo said in a statement sent to IslamOnline.net.

Arroyo said the military operation blamed for the attack was not against the MNLF because many of its ranking members are co-leaders in governance like Basilan Rep. Gerry Salapuddin, Mayor Muslimin Sema, Marawi City Mayor Omar Ali, and several other officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy (PCID), a group of Muslim leaders, called for a thorough investigation into the clashes.

The fighting erupted Monday when army troops launched a vast offensive, saying it targeted remnants of Abu Sayyaf group that championed the kidnap of hostages and demanding ransoms for years now.

Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza, head of the Philippine military command in Mindanao said that about 500 MNLF fighters Monday launched coordinated attacks against Philippine Army posts in the towns of Panamao, Parang, and Patikul all in Sulu province, apparently due to the continued operation of government soldiers against the Abu Sayyaf.

He said military operations in the area might have irked the attackers, making them launch the offensives.

The military earlier said MNLF fighters launched the attack because they want to force the government to transfer the court trial of their founding leader, Nur Misuari, from Laguna near the Philippine capital Manila to his stronghold Sulu province.

Filipino army enforcements sent to Mindanao. (Reuters)

Philippine Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman Thursday said there were already some 2,000 people who have left their homes for fear of being caught in the crossfire.

“We have dispatched teams in Sulu to attend to the needs of the displaced,” Soliman said over radio station DZRH.

Government officials and top leaders of the MNLF have tried to bring down the tension in the field since Monday and halt the skirmishes between soldiers supported by air firepower and fighters firing mortars to no avail.

On Thursday morning, jailed MNLF founder Nur Misuari issued a statement calling for “self-restraint, sobriety and calmness” among his men through an MNLF secretary general Istad Mushiri, who said they were open for dialogue to end the fighting.

Braganza, however, told reporters the army would continue to run after those who attacked several military posts in Sulu and so far killed some 20 soldiers and wounded 46 others.

“It’s surrender or nothing,” he said Thursday for the attackers who reportedly sustained 60 casualties already.

PCID convener Amina Rasul said Thursday: “We need to know what really happened here. President Arroyo must call on her defense people to rein in their forces to avert further bloodshed.”

Mindanao Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. called Thursday on both the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the MNLF-Misuari faction to immediately suspend armed hostilities in Sulu and resolve the causes of the renewed fighting through peace dialogue.

Pimentel expressed concern that fighting may further escalate, causing more deaths and displacing of civilians from their communities that will negate the gains in bringing Muslim rebels into the mainstream of society under the government-MNLF peace agreement of 1996.

He said the government should exhaust all efforts to convince Misuari’s followers not to stray from the path of peace and development and to respect the 1996 peace agreement with the government.

He said the members of the MNLF breakaway faction resorted to armed action apparently to manifest their disenchantment and impatience over the slow pace of the judicial trial of Misuari for rebellion charges.

MNLF inked a peace agreement with the Philippine government in 1996, where the government granted Muslim-dominated provinces in Mindanao autonomy called the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Misuari became the governor of ARMM and many of the MNLF fighters were taken in the Philippine National Police and the Philippine military.

However, in November 2001, on the eve of the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Misuari accused the government of reneging on the GRP-MNLF Final Agreement of 1996, launched a new rebellion.

More than 100 government soldiers and MNLF fighters were killed. Misuari fled to Malaysia but was arrested and jailed on rebellion charges until today.

There were also government-championed reports that the Abu Sayyaf aided the MNLF in attacking the soldiers.

Abu Sayyaf has publicly admitted to a series of kidnapping local and foreign nationals in the country and the nearby Malaysian island resort of Sipadan. The Philippine and the United States governments have listed Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization.

Arroyo, meanwhile, said the ambassadors of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) were briefed on the situation Thursday morning and assured that the overall peace agreement with the MNLF as well as the ongoing ceasefire with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) firmly hold even amid isolated clashes.

“The ceasefire with the MILF is holding tight, far and wide. We will soon set out teams to go after lawless elements as we prepare for the resumption of talks,” Arroyo said.

But migrants’ group Migrante expressed concern over the fate of Filipinos who are going to be sent home by Malaysia as it launched a crackdown against illegal aliens there.

“With ongoing war in Sulu where will undocumented Filipino deportees from Malaysia go? What will happen to those Filipinos who were forced to flee to Malaysia due to the years of strife in Sulu, Tawi-tawi, Basilan, Lanao and other provinces?” Connie Regalado, Migrante chair, told IslamOnline.net.