The Mamasapano town mayor says a young girl and 3 men were among the civilians killed in the encounter
An 8-year-old
girl and 3 men – one with his hands bound – were among those killed in a
botched anti-terror police operation in Mindanao last weekend, a local official
said Saturday, January 31.
Mamasapano town
mayor Benzar Ampatuan said residents had told him police tied up the man to
stop him tipping off their targets ahead of the pre-dawn raid, in which 44
commandos died in one of the force's bloodiest days in recent years.
A local farmer's
daughter and two other men were also found dead in their homes after the
fighting, Ampatuan said, the first report of civilian casualties in the
bloodbath.
"Their wives
said they were hit in the crossfire," he told Agence France-Presse, adding
that five other residents of the corn-farming region were also wounded.
Earlier, a Moro group reported that
at least 7 civilians were killed while 3 others were wounded during the
encounter. The affected residents were reportedly preparing for their morning
prayers when police commandos allegedly entered the community and opened fire.
The Philippines on Friday held a national day of mourning
for the dead police officers, who were killed as they hunted the man blamed for
the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia
Nearly 400
members of the elite police unit were sent to a village near the town of Mamasapano
The Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) said 11 of its fighters were killed and 15 wounded in
the gunfight that ensued. A second rebel force, the MILF splinter group
Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, has not disclosed whether it suffered any
casualties.
Filipino
officials said Zulkifli was killed by the raiders, a claim that has yet to be
independently confirmed. A second target, Filipino militant Abdul Basit Usman,
escaped.
The government
has faced calls for retribution after at least one police survivor alleged some
of the policemen were killed after they surrendered and their corpses were
desecrated.
Despite the
bloodbath, both the Philippine government and the MILF pledged at the end of
the Kuala Lumpur
The process calls
on parliament to pass a law giving minority Muslims self-rule over several
provinces and for the 10,000-member MILF to disarm gradually.
The accord aims
to end decades of armed conflict that had claimed 120,000 lives and kept the
Catholic nation's Muslim south in abject poverty and lawlessness.
http://www.rappler.com/nation/82536-mayor-confirms-civilian-death-saf-milf-clash
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