8 dead as soldiers
clash with renegades

ZAMBOANGA - Eight soldiers and Muslim militants were killed in a clash in Sulu yesterday, military officials said.

Soldiers hunting for renegade Muslim leader Habier Malik were attacked by his followers on the outskirts of Kalingalan Kaluang town in the southern Sulu islands, leading to a fierce clash that sparked the casualties.

"We have sent the rangers to reinforce the marines in the area and to hunt down those responsible in the killings," said Brigadier General Ruperto Pabustan, commander of elite forces in Sulu.

Malik is a member of the Moro National Liberation Front, a former Muslim separatist group that waged a bloody Islamic separatist war in the 1970s but which signed a peace accord in 1996.

However the rebel leader has expressed dissatisfaction with the terms of the peace accord, once even holding a peace negotiating team hostage for several days in February.

Malik's forces have since helped other Muslim gunmen in battles with the government, resulting in 21 slain soldiers and rebels in April.*AFP

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