Muslim rebels torch houses in Philippine attack, military says

Jan 8, 2009, 6:01 GMT

   Cotabato City, Philippines - Muslim separatist rebels attacked a southern Philippine village, torching at least 30 homes of Christian families, an army spokesman said Thursday.

   No one was hurt in the raid on Sanga village in Kalamansig town in Sultan Kudarat province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, on Wednesday, said Lieutenant Colonel Julieto Ando.

   Ando said about 150 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels occupied the farming village, forcing some 500 families to flee their homes.

   On Wednesday, government security forces launched air and ground assaults on the rebels, who torched the homes in a bid to slow down the troops.

   'We are using OV-10 and MG-520 aircraft to drive them away,' Ando said.

   MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied the rebels torched the homes.    'The military launched air assault against us,' he said. 'The rockets and bombs coming from them might have hit the civilian houses.'

   He also denied Ando's report that 10 MILF rebels were killed in the airstrikes.

   The MILF is the largest Muslim separatist rebel group in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao.

   Peace talks between the MILF and the Philippine government were suspended in August when the rebels launched a series of deadly attacks that killed more than 200 people.

   The hostilities erupted after the Supreme Court stopped the signing of a key agreement between the two sides that would have expanded an autonomous Muslim region in Mindanao.