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ZAMBOANGA CITY—Abdullah Macapaar alias Commander Bravo,
the leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
rebel faction that attacked and occupied last week four
towns in Lanao del Norte, was reportedly injured as the
military stepped up the offensive against the rebel
group.
“As a
result of the military offensive for the past few days,
persistent reports from various sources indicate that
[Commander] Bravo himself was wounded and was evacuated
in Marawi City for treatment,” the Western Mindanao
Command chief, Lt. Gen. Nelson Allaga, said Tuesday.
With
this development, Allaga reiterated “our call to all
civilians who has knowledge on the whereabouts of
Commander Bravo to report to the authorities for his
immediate arrest.”
The
government is offering P5-million reward for anyone who
could provide information leading to the arrest of
Commander Bravo, head of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic
Armed Forces 102nd Base Command.
Another
P5-million reward has been offered for the arrest of
Ameril Umbra Kato alias Commander Kato, the head of the
BIAF’s 105th Base Command, whose forces occupied several
villages in North Cotabato area.
Allaga
said that troops from the Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion
clashed with a group of 50 MILF rebels at about 9:45
Monday in barangay Lunsod, Poona Piagapo town.
Allaga
said the firefight lasted for about three hours that
resulted in the death of five rebels and injured 10
others. The government troops suffered five wounded.
He said
that as of Monday, the Bravo-led MILF faction has
suffered 21 deaths, including Bravo’s sub-commander
Esmail Desumalong alias Commander Ultimax, head of the
7th Brigade of BIAF’s 102nd Base Command.
He said
that Air Force planes conducted a bomb run around 7 a.m.
Tuesday at pinpointed positions of MILF rebels under
Commander Bravo in Lanao del Norte.
The
former chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF),
meanwhile, called for a cease-fire between government
forces and the MILF factions they are pursuing, saying
the people
of Mindanao, especially the children, have been severely
affected by the ongoing hostilities.
Nur
Misuari said the armed conflict, that has been raging
for a week, must stop and that both parties should work
for the immediate return of peace.
“I don’t
like any further bloodshed. Our children in Mindanao are
the ones being severely affected,” said Misuari, who
visited Armed Forces
Deputy Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Rodrigo Maclang in Camp
Aguinaldo, Quezon City on Tuesday.
Misuari
is out on bail for the rebellion case against him
pending before the Regional Trial Court in Makati City,
for allegedly ordering his men to attack a military camp
in Mindanao several years ago.
For the
past two months, he has been traveling around the
region, promoting peace and consulting with his men,
supporters and Moro communities.
The
former MNLF chairman, who steered his group into signing
a peace agreement with the government in 1996, believed
the government can pacify the situation in the region if
it wanted to.
The
Bantay Cease-fire has called on the government and the
MILF to “stop the war and go back to the negotiation
table.”
Rexall
Kaalim, Bantay Cease-fire coordinator, warned that
“unless the guns are silenced and the peace negotiators
get back into talking, this war could go out of hand and
beyond our imagination.”
Kaalim
expressed fears on the “not remote possibility of a
prolonged and escalated fighting” after a team of Bantay
Cease-fire concluded an investigative mission in Lanao
del Norte.
He said
that aside from the investigative mission they sent to
Lanao del Norte, the volunteers also continued to
monitor developments in war-torn areas of North Cotabato,
and four towns in Maguindanao province.
The
United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has agreed
with the government to provide an additional 250 metric
tons of rice worth $207,000 to assist some 10,000 newly
displaced families (approximately 60,000 persons) in the
provinces of Maguindanao, and Shariff Kabunsuan for at
least one month, due to growing insecurity brought about
by continuing clashes between the government and MILF
rebels.
WFP
announced that this new support for conflict-affected
vulnerable populations was upon the request of the
Department of Social Welfare and Development of the
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Since
August 11, WFP has provided some 650 metric tons of rice
to 160,000 displaced individuals from Lanao del Sur,
Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato. (With R. Acosta and
R. Elusfa) |
