It was unclear whether any of the 12 civilians killed in the standoff were hostages. Gazmin said 195 hostages had either been rescued, managed to escape or were freed.
We have accomplished the mission," Gazmin said by telephone from Zamboanga, where he helped oversee a government offensive and hostage rescue mission by about 4,500 government troops and police backed by tanks, navy gunboats and rocket-firing helicopters. It was in one of the bloodiest and longest-running attacks by a Muslim group in the southern Philippines, the scene of a decades-long Muslim rebellion for self-rule in the largely Roman Catholic country. More than 200 people were killed in the clashes, including 183 rebels, 23 soldiers and police, and 12 civilians. Gunshots briefly rang out and a fire erupted in a small area Saturday.
He said authorities were trying to determine whether rebel commander Habier Malik, who led the Sept. MANILA, Philippines – A deadly three-week standoff between government troops and Muslim rebels who held nearly 200 people hostage in the southern Philippines has ended with all of the remaining captives safe, officials said Saturday.ĭefense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said only a handful of Moro National Liberation Front rebels remained in hiding and were being hunted by troops in the coastal outskirts of Zamboanga city.
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