Philippine troops attack Muslim rebel camp

MANILA, Apr 25 (Reuters) Philippine troops launched a major offensive today against a Muslim rebel group on the southern island of Jolo after militants beheaded seven labourers.

The military fired 36 rounds of artillery at the camp of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) commander, Khaid Ajibun, who they suspect is sheltering a rogue MNLF leader and members of Abu Sayyaf they believe were responsible for the decapitations.

''We're inserting troops tonight to capture the MNLF camp,'' Brigadier-General Ruperto Pabustan, commander of special forces on Jolo, said on Wednesday.

Optimism that Jolo, one of the frontlines in the US war on terror, had become a more stable place after an eight-month ground offensive against the Abu Sayyaf was shattered earlier this month when MNLF commander, Habier Malik, shelled a marine base.

Malik and the MNLF, which signed a peace deal with the largely Catholic government in Manila in 1996, had been helping government soldiers and their US advisers flush Abu Sayyaf and regional terror network Jemaah Islamiah from Jolo's forests.

The military deemed the campaign a success; estimating that Abu Sayyaf's core strength had been halved from around 400 fighters and key strategists had been killed.

But the militants, the deadliest and most reviled of three key Islamic rebel groups in the Philippines, took their revenge on seven impoverished labourers, including two teenagers, whose heads they delivered to two army bases in sacks last week.

The military, which had already launched airstrikes against Malik, triggering mass evacuations and criticism from Muslim nations, vowed to step up its offensive against the Abu Sayyaf.

But analysts fear that the military's fierce campaign against the MNLF could disrupt local support for its campaign against the Abu Sayyaf and bury any hope of salvaging the 1996 peace deal.

It could also foster cooperation between the MNLF and the Abu Sayyaf.

Soldiers seized over 600 kg (1,320 lb) of a chemical material commonly used in bombs on Jolo on Saturday. The military said the large cache was a sign militants could have been planning attacks either in Manila or in southern cities.

Reuters RS GC2210