ZAMBOANGA: Seven Muslim separatist guerrillas died after a foiled attack on a military outpost in the southern Philippines, a military spokesman said Sunday. Rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attacked the military in Datu Piang town in Mindanao late Saturday in an attempt to destroy artillery at the base, said Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce. "Seven rebels were killed in the fighting, but there could be more as the MILF forces retreated with their wounded," said Ponce.Last week, the MILF bombed a bridge and burned houses in Mindanao as part of what they said were counterattacks against the military. Manila opened peace talks with the 12,000-strong MILF in 2001, but the negotiations collapsed in August last year after the Supreme Court struck down a deal that would have given the MILF control over large areas of Mindanao.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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