When it comes to jihadis, such as MILF, there is a very fine line between killing “innocent children and civilians” out of desperation and killing them out of indifference: after all, from an Islamist perspective, infidels — children or otherwise — are hardly ever “innocent.” “Homemade bomb explodes outside Philippine school, no one hurt,” from the Earth Times, June 14:
Manila – A homemade bomb allegedly planted by Muslim separatist rebels exploded in front of a public school in the southern Philippines on Sunday, but no one was hurt, an army spokesman said. A second bomb was found just 20 metres from the Nabundas Elementary School in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao province, 960 kilometres south of Manila, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce said.
The second bomb was safely detonated, he added.
Ponce said troops also found and defused a bomb along a national highway in nearby Datu Saudi Ampatuan town on Saturday.
He blamed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for planting the explosives in retaliation for the killing of more than 40 rebels in assaults by the military on their hideouts in nearby Talayan and Guindulungan towns since June 4.
“They are very desperate that they don’t care if their victims are innocent children and civilians,” he said.
The MILF is the largest Muslim rebel group fighting for the establishment of an independent Islamic state in the southern region of Mindanao. It has been waging the separatist struggle since 1978.
The rebel group entered into peace talks with the Philippine government in 1997, but the negotiations have been suspended since August 2008 after the rebels launched a series of deadly attacks in Mindanao.
Nearly 300 people have been killed and more than 500,000 were displaced due to the rebel attacks and the subsequent fighting with the military.