A group of 100 heavily-armed Muslim rebels opposed to peace talks launched a major attack that shut down a bustling southern Philippine city Monday, authorities said.
Followers of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) leader Nur Misuari entered the coastal area of Zamboanga city by boat at dawn, triggering clashes that left at least one soldier dead and six wounded, the military said.
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A police sniper gets into
position to confront MNLF rebels in Zamboanga City in the Philippines on
September 9, 2013. A group of 100 rebels arrived by boat and took 20
civilians hostage, shooting dead a soldier and wounding six others
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Fighting later spread to the city itself, with the rebels taking 20 civilian hostages to thwart government forces.
"The main target by the MNLF in encroaching Zamboanga City is to raise their banner of independence at city hall," city mayor Isabelle Climaco-Salazar said.
"As of now there are an estimated 20 people that have been held hostage," she said.
The long-running Muslim insurgency in the Philippines has left more than 150,000 dead, and led to a proliferation of armed groups that have left parts of Mindanao in a constant state of lawlessness.
Misuari's faction of the fractured MNLF, which he founded in the early 1970s, has made a renewed call for an independent Islamic state in the mainly-Catholic Philippines.
The government has been mired in troubled peace negotiations with rebel groups -- last month Misuari again declared he was breaking away from the government because he believed they were sidelining his group.
While some within the divided MNLF respect the peace process others, including Misuari's wing, are opposed to it.
Loud shots could be heard Monday around Zamboanga, a former colonial Spanish port with a population of nearly a million and one of the busiest commercial hubs on southern Mindanao island.
