MANILA // At least 48 people have been killed in heavy fighting between police and Muslim rebels in the Philippines, threatening a year-old peace agreement and shattering a ceasefire that had held for three years.
On Monday, Philippine police said 43 of their commandos had been killed in the country’s south the day before. It was the biggest single-day combat loss for the Philippine government in recent memory.
One commando remains missing while 11 others were wounded, national police deputy director General Leonardo Espina said, following the fierce battle in and around the village of Tukanalipao in the Mamasapano township.
Earlier, local officials in Mamasapano said five rebels had been killed in the fighting, which lasted nearly 12 hours.
Around 100 members of the police’s elite Special Action Forces had entered the village under darkness to arrest Zulkifli bin Hir, a Malaysian bomb expert, who has a US$5 million (Dh18.4m) bounty on his head from the US State Department. Bin Hir, also known as Marwan, may have been killed in the raid.
Rebel groups the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and its rival faction, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, are believed to be operating in the Muslim community, army sources said.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas called the commandos “fallen heroes” who had sacrificed their lives.
The MILF, the largest rebel group in the country’s south, accepted an autonomy offer in March 2014 from the government, ending 45 years of conflict in which 120,000 people were killed and 2 million displaced.
Under the deal, brokered by Malaysia, the MILF rebels were to surrender their weapons and disband after the government set up a new autonomous government in the south and granted the Muslim minority wider economic and political power.
But Sunday’s clashes are likely to be a major setback in the implementation of the deal as the Philippine Congress deliberates a new law on Muslim autonomy.
MILF leaders said the police did not consult a joint government and rebel ceasefire panel – a condition of the peace deal.
Government and rebel peace panels are now holding informal talks to defuse tension and prevent the incident from escalating and spilling out and threaten the entire peace process.
The last time MILF rebels clashed with security force was in November 2011 when troops raided an alleged militant lair. Peace talks with the group nearly collapsed following the incident.
* Reuters and Associated Press