Philippine troops kill seven rebels after hostage crisis

Philippine troops killed seven more Muslim rebels in gunbattles in the coastal outskirts of a southern city they were clearing of bodies, bombs, weapons and possible booby traps following a three-week standoff with insurgents who held scores of people hostage, officials said on Sunday.

Army troops and special police forces killed six Moro National Liberation Front rebels who were hiding in a house in Zamboanga city’s Santa Barbara community on Sunday and refused to surrender. Another rebel was slain by troops in a clash on Saturday in nearby Rio Hondo, one of five communities occupied by nearly 500 insurgents on September 9, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala said.

Troops recovered seven assault rifles and a grenade launcher used by the slain rebels, he said.

“Definitely the worst is over,” Zagala told reporters, but added that it would be dangerous for residents to return until government forces have finished a two-week inspection of the battered communities.

Defence and military officials declared the rebel standoff and hostage crisis over on Saturday, saying 195 residents seized by the rebels as human shields had been rescued safely, escaped or were freed. More than 4,000 troops and police killed 190 rebels, while 292 other insurgents were either captured or surrendered out of exhaustion and after running out of food and ammunition.

While troops remained as a backup force, police took charge on Sunday of the house-to-house inspections in search of any more rebel holdouts and the dangerous leftovers from the standoff, which paralysed the port city of nearly a million people.