Philippine city erupts despite pact with Muslim rebels

Zach Coleman | USA TODAY

A decades-long conflict between the Philippines and Muslim rebels calmed by a recent peace deal was reignited Tuesday as national troops streamed into a port city to confront rebels using civilians as human shields.

Thousands of Philippines troops arrived in Zamboanga City in the far southwest of the country after hundreds of heavily armed Muslim gunmen landed in boats and took hostages for a march to City Hall to raise their flag and declare an independent state.

Schools and offices were closed and flights and ferry services suspended as Mayor Beng Climaco announced via Facebook that a curfew would be in place for a second night Wednesday.

However, she said city government operations would resume on Wednesday and she urged businesses in areas away from the fighting to reopen, though she asked them "to ensure that prices of commodities remain stable."

"Our priority, of course, is all of the civilians that could get dragged into the conflict. Our instructions since yesterday have been to make sure everyone is safe," President Benigno Aquino said in Manila.

Several thousand people have fled from the five coastal neighborhoods affected by the fighting. According to the city, four people were killed and 14 injured in Monday's clashes and at least two more were injured by gunfire Tuesday.

About 200 members of the Moro National Liberation Front were believed to be still holding at least 170 hostages in several districts of the predominantly Christian city, though four children and one adult were released Tuesday morning.

With the government sending reinforcements to Zamboanga City, MNLF spokesmen told local media the group might take action in other parts of Mindanao.

The large island in the country's south is mostly Muslim and home to a number of fractious rebel groups that have been fighting for an independent Islamic state for decades, at times with support from foreign governments such as that of Libya under Moammar Gadhafi. The fighting had cost 120,000 lives.

The MNLF signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996, but that pact has come under strain the past few years as Manila has negotiated with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for a new agreement that the MNLF worries could marginalize it; the MILF split off from the MNLF over the original peace agreement.

The MNLF's founder declared an independent republic last month. This week's troubles started as MNLF forces sought to raise their flag over Zamboanga City's city hall.

Government and MILF representatives opened a new round of peace talks Tuesday in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur despite the Zamboanga City clashes.

Malaysia has put security forces in its territory close to Mindanao on high alert though authorities have discounted MNLF claims to be activating thousands of members in Malaysian Borneo; the MNLF's leader and some others in Mindanao claim Malaysian Borneo as shared territory with the Philippine island. Malaysian troops defeated several hundred Philippine Muslim fighters from another group earlier this year who took over a Borneo village for weeks.