(Vatican Radio) Fighting intensified in the Southern Philippines on Saturday, where
government troops continued to battle Muslim separatists in suburbs of Zamboanga city.
More than 50 people have died since the siege began on Monday. Meanwhile, rebels are
reported still to be holding residents as human shields.
Philippine troops
stepped up efforts to try to force rebels from buildings they seized in Zamboanga
city. The insurgents are well armed. At one point they apparently fired a mortar at
government forces, which wounded several Red Cross workers.
The Philippines
president said: "The prime objective is to save lives." But a Catholic priest caught
up in the siege has been describing the ordeal some of the hostages are facing. Father
Michael Ufana said he himself was a held as a hostage until his release on Friday.
Whenever
the military attacked, he said, the rebels would force us to become their human shields.
Then, after the firefight they would lock us up again in detention.
Government
officials say those trapped in two schools are running short of food. An estimated
60,000 residents have fled, and hundreds of buildings are now destroyed.
A
ceasefire had been due on Saturday, after telephone talks between the Philippines
vice president and the head of a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front. But
it is unclear whether all the fighters answer to that one group, as some reports say
the force appears to be a coalition of islamists and independence seekers.