COTABATO, Philippines, January 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The death toll from two days of fighting between Muslim resistance fighters and government troops rose to 10 on Saturday, January 11, as the two sides battled for control of a village on the main southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

The military reiterated its plan to drive the Muslim Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) out of Polomolok village in Sultan Kudarat province even as MILF fighters said they would not be expelled, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Meanwhile, hundreds of residents continued to flee the area, evacuating to public schools in nearby areas.

“We will continue the military effort to recover Polomolok and drive away the guerrillas,” said military spokesman Major Julieto Ando

But there are conflicting accounts of the number of each side’s casualties that have fallen in Saturday’s fighting.

Ando said at least 10 of the MILF fighters had been killed and one soldier wounded.

However MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the Muslim group’s forces would not leave the mainly-Muslim village as they had long been established there. He said three soldiers had been killed in the fighting so far although Ando would not confirm this.

The fighting began on Friday, January 10, when troops arrived in Colombio town near Polomolok to search for members of the “Pentagon”, a group made up of former MILF fighters, Ando said.

About 70 Pentagon members opened fire on the troops, prompting the soldiers, backed by helicopter gunships, to launch a major assault, Ando said.

The group members fled to a nearby MILF camp. MILF fighters began firing at the pursuing troops in support of the Pentagon members, Ando said.

The violence came despite a ceasefire sealed in 2001 between the government and the MILF to pave the way for peace talks.

MILF spokesman Kabalu confirmed that the MILF group had supported the Pentagon gang members but said they did this only because they found themselves under attack from the military.

He said the Pentagon gunmen had entered their area speaking the local Muslim dialect. The MILF fighters did not know they were wanted kidnappers but found themselves also being blasted by helicopter-fired rockets.

So they made the “judgment call” to help the gunmen, Kabalu said, adding that under the ceasefire accord the military should coordinate with the MILF when pursuing outlaws in its areas.

Local army brigade commander Colonel Agustin Dema-ala said the troops had had no time to contact the MILF as they were in hot pursuit of the Pentagon gang.

He added that “the ceasefire does not prevent the military from pursuing bandits even if they enter into an MILF-identified area.”

Kabalu warned that the fighting could spread to other areas of Mindanao island, adding he would raise the issue with a joint ceasefire monitoring committee.

Ando said there were about a thousand MILF fighters in Polomolok, many armed with rocket-propelled grenades. He accused them of ransacking and burning houses in the village.

In another development, military forces discovered and defused two improvised bombs suspected to have been planted by MILF forces in the south in recent days.

The first, a 60 mm mortar shell rigged with an electronic detonator, was found and defused in a market in Iligan City late Thursday while the second, a 105-mm howitzer shell with a detonator, was found in a gasoline station in Esperanza town, Sultan Kudarat province on Friday.

It was not clear what the motive for the bombing attempts was, a military report said.

Despite the ceasefire, sporadic clashes between the government and MILF forces still take place.

“The Muslims of Mindanao have been a historically autonomous and distinct people who rebelled against the heavy-handed and often insensitive attempts by central authorities to impose upon them “national” values; that is, values of the dominant Catholic majority,” he added.

“The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the largest of the Moro armed organizations, has historically served as the main focus of armed Islamic resistance to Manila in the southern Philippines.

“The MNLF, founded by Nur Misuari in 1971, has argued that the Moro people constitute a distinct Islamic historical and cultural identity, and have a legitimate right to determine their own future,” Kamel said.

“In 1980, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was formed as a splinter movement of the MNLF. This group was critical of the more leftist orientation of the MNLF, and is far more religiously oriented than its parent movement, emphasizing the promotion of Islamic ideals, rather than the broad-based pursuit of nationalist Moro objectives.