The Associated Press
MANILA, Philippines: Filipino Muslims voted in regional elections Monday amid tensions across the southern Philippines as troops battled hundreds of Islamic guerrillas who defied an ultimatum to withdraw from Christian villages in one province.
Government troops unleashed artillery fire and airstrikes Sunday on Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas in North Cotabato province's farming villages of Aleosan and Pikit, which the rebels occupied last month despite a 2003 cease-fire, officials said.
The army said at least six soldiers were wounded, and the government's disaster agency reported about 130,000 people have been displaced.
The government had given the estimated 800-1,000 guerrillas until Friday morning to vacate the villages. But instead of withdrawing, the rebels spread into other areas and are now in about two dozen North Cotabato villages, Gov. Jesus Sacdalan said.
The rebels were ordered by their leaders to pull back after discussions between MILF and Philippine officials on Saturday, but they later complained that their withdrawal was hampered by government troops and armed villagers.
Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said pro-military militias shot and wounded one rebel Saturday, prompting others to delay their withdrawal. Kabalu said a key rebel commander, Ameril Umbra Kato, told him in a meeting Sunday that his forces were willing to withdraw if there was a government assurance they would not be attacked.
The fighting in the predominantly Christian agricultural province of more than 1 million people on the main southern island of Mindanao did not directly affect Monday's election for a governor, vice governor and a regional assembly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
North Cotabato itself is not voting because it is not part of the five-province Muslim region, which was created after a landmark 1996 peace accord between the government and another large Muslim rebel group.
The MILF rebels rejected that accord and went on to negotiate with the government a broader autonomy for minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation's south.
The two sides had reached an agreement that would expand the territory of a future Muslim homeland but the signing of the accord was stopped last week by the Supreme Court, acting on a petition filed by Christian politicians in the south.
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Associated Press writer Hrvoje Hranjski contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/11/asia/AS-Philippines-Muslim-Rebels.php
