PHILIPPINNES: RENEWED FIGHTING BETWEEN MOSLEM REBELS AND PHILIPPINE TROOPS ERUPTS SHORTLY BEFORE ARRIVAL OF PRESIDENT FIDEL RAMOS TO AREA.

Record ID: 376063

  • Title: PHILIPPINNES: RENEWED FIGHTING BETWEEN MOSLEM REBELS AND PHILIPPINE TROOPS ERUPTS SHORTLY BEFORE ARRIVAL OF PRESIDENT FIDEL RAMOS TO AREA.
  • Date: 7th April 1995
  • Summary: CAVITE AND IPIL, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR, PHILIPPINES (APRIL 7-8, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) IPIL, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR (APRIL 7, 1995) 1. SLV HELICOPTER LANDING 0.09 2. SV ROCKETS ON HELICOPTER 0.11 3. SLV HELICOPTER ON GROUND READY FOR TAKE OFF 0.15 4. SV SOLDIER ADJUSTING BACKPACK 0.20 5. CU GRENADE IN SOLDIER'S VEST 0.28 6. SV SOLDIERS STANDING BY (4 SHOTS) 0.47 CAVITE (APRIL 8, 1995) 7. SLV PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT FIDEL RAMOS SPEAKING ON STAGE 0.53 8. SV RAMOS SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 1.48 9. GV AUDIENCE 1.54 SEQ.8: TRANSCRIPT; "THE ATTACK ON IPIL, ZAMBOANGA EL SUR ... IS A DEADLY EXAMPLE OF THE NEW KIND OF MINDLESS CRIMINAL VIOLENCE THAT WE MUST FACE. THE LINKS OF ABU SAYYAF WITH INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST GROUPS HAS ALREADY BEEN SHOWN. THE RECENT CAPTURE OF PNP ELEMENTS OF SIX ARMED FOREIGN TERRORISTS IN CALOOCAN CITY LAST WEEK IS A FURTHER INDICATION OF VIOLENT EXTREMISTS IN OUR MIDST." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 22nd April 1995 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CAVITE AND IPIL, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR, PHILIPPINES
  • City:
  • Country: Phillippines
  • Reuters ID: LVAKDO1E5TZ83FM8WRT22P4UWPB
  • Story Text: Renewed fighting between Moslem rebels and Philippine troops erupted on Saturday (April 8) near the southern township of Ipil, shortly before Philippine President Fidel Ramos was to arrive there.

    It was the fourth encounter between the military and the rebels since a raid on Ipil, some 800 km (500 miles) south of Manila on Tuesday.

    The attack on Ipil was the worst single act of violence for 20 years in a decades-old insurgency.

    Ramos has ordered an all-out offensive against the rebels, remnants of a 200-strong force of heavily armed fundamentalists known as the Abu Sayyaf who killed 45 people in Ipil.

    No reports of casualties were immediately available for the latest encounter as military communications were difficult, army General Rene Cardones, commander of the 1st infantry division, said.

    "The attack of Ipil in Zamboanga del Sur by Abu Sayyaf terrorists is a deadly example of the new kind of mindless criminal violence that we must face," Ramos said in a speech to new graduates of the Philippine National Police in Camp General Mariano Castaneda in Cavite, a few km (miles) south of Manila.

    Helicopters, mainly UH-1s or Hueys dating from the Vietnam War-era, landed at Ipil's airstrip every few minutes and took off again with a new load of troops.

    Moslem community leaders say the radical Moslems reject mainstream rebel groups involved in peace talks with the government and have been receiving substantial support in weapons, funds and training from Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan.

    About 80 pecent of the Philippines' 65 million people are Christian but it also has a Moslem minority of some five million living mainly in the south.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register