Philippines Launches Helicopter Assault at Muslim Rebels

Philippine troops aboard helicopters fired rockets on Monday at Muslim rebels occupying parts of a major city, intensifying efforts to end an eight-day standoff that has left dozens dead.

The military said it was close to defeating the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) forces, who have invaded southern Zamboanga city in a bid to derail a rival rebel group's planned peace pact with the government.

"We know for a fact that the end is near and they are trying to flee," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala told Agence France Presse shortly before the helicopter assault was launched.

Two air force helicopters fired rockets towards the MNLF rebels held up in and around two coastal villages, the first air strikes since the military began its offensive on Friday.

About 200 rebels initially took dozens of hostages and burned hundreds of homes, forcing a shut down of Zamboanga, a city of about one million that is a key commercial hub in the region.

Zagala said there were only about 100 MNLF forces left, after dozens were caught and others fled, while key rebel-held areas had been over-run.

But the remaining gunmen were hiding among civilians and Zagala acknowledged the rebels were believed to still be holding some locals as human shields.

Asked about the potential for the civilians to be caught up in the helicopter assaults, Zagala emphasized they were "precision" strikes.

Human Rights Watch expressed concern about the growing dangers for civilians, four of whom had been killed in earlier stages of the conflict.

"This definitely raises the level of danger for civilians in the area," Carlos Conde, the Philippine representative for the New York-based watchdog, told AFP from Zamboanga.

"These are residential areas, how would they (soldiers) know which house or area to target? I don't think they would have that precise information."

Fifty-one MNLF fighters and six security forces, as well as the four civilians, have died during the standoff, according to Zagala.

Nearly 70,000 other civilians have fled the fighting, however many other people are believed to be trapped inside the conflict zones.

As many as 300 civilians in one village had sought shelter in an ice-making plant building after abandoning their homes, while others had stayed behind to protect their belongings, according to Human Rights Watch.

Zagala said on Monday morning the remaining MNLF rebels were engaged in ground battles with troops around two coastal villages, and had proved defiant in the face of the military advance.

"They still have ammunition and they continue to fire at us," he said.

Zagala said MNLF rebels on Monday torched a section of Santa Barbara, one of the neighborhoods they had occupied, to slow down the military advance.

Volleys of gunfire were heard ringing out across Santa Barbara before the helicopter assault, while sniper fire from the rebels prevented firemen from approaching the burning community, an AFP reporter said.

Muslim rebels have been fighting since the 1970s for an independent or autonomous homeland in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines. An estimated 150,000 people have died in the fighting.

The MNLF signed a peace treaty in 1996 that granted limited self-rule to the south's Muslim minority, and has since largely participated in the country's political process rather than foment violence.

But 71-year-old MNLF founder Nur Misauri has been angered by a planned peace deal between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a rival group with 12,000 gunmen, as he believes it would sideline his organization.

President Benigno Aquino has described the autonomous region established under the 1996 pact as a "failed experiment", largely because the southern Philippines has continued to endure dire poverty and corruption.

Under the envisaged new peace deal, a new autonomous region would replace the MNLF-brokered one. The rival MILF would have most control of the new autonomous region.

Zamboanga, about 850 kilometers (530 miles) south of the capital Manila, is a major industrial and trading hub. One of its most important economic sectors is a sardine-producing industry.

Because of the conflict schools in Zamboanga were shut and ferry and air services were suspended for an eighth consecutive day.