Hundreds of government forces were deployed on Monday to a southern Philippine town after a daring raid by the nation’s top Muslim separatist group left 25 people dead and dozens wounded. President Gloria Arroyo said the attack by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on the remote mining town of Siocon, some 465-km south of Manila, was an act of terrorism that the group must account for. The attack came as government negotiators prepared to meet the MILF in ‘exploratory’ peace talks in Kuala Lumpur this week. ‘The MILF must account for this act, both on the ground and on the level of peace negotiations,’ she told reporters in Manila. ‘We will go after the perpetrators and the MILF must turn over to the government without excuses the perpetrators,’ she said. The MILF, whose 12,500-strong force is the main Muslim separatist group in the southern Philippines, launched their bloody raid on Siocon on Sunday, catching the military off-guard and seizing 15 civilians as ‘human shields’. Full Story
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