Two slain, nine wounded in Muslim rebel attacks in southern Philippines

MANILA (AFP) Apr 10, 2003
Muslim separatist rebels hit three military and government targets in the southern Philippines, killing or wounding 11 people and disrupting the local power supply, the armed forces said Thursday.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) gunmen ambushed an armed patrol by volunteer civilian village self-defense forces near the town of Pikit on Wednesday, killing two of the volunteer militia members and wounding two others, a military report said.

A second MILF unit shot up an outpost of the self-defense unit near the town of Kauswagan on the same day, leaving seven civilian residents nearby wounded, it added.

Meanwhile, the MILF brought down an electric pylon near Tupi town on Wednesday, cutting off power supply to the town for nearly two hours, the report said.

The 12,500-member MILF has been waging a 25-year campaign to set up an Islamic state in the southern third of the mainly Roman Catholic islands.

SPACE.WIRE