Looking For A New Acronym

MILF kills 14 Marines:

CAMPO UNO, Basilan--Fourteen Marines searching for kidnapped Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi were killed, with four of them beheaded, in an encounter with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas in a remote village in Basilan, the military said yesterday.

Nine other soldiers were injured while six remained missing after the eight-hour clash Tuesday near Tipo-Tipo town, a known hideout of the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF.

Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Ariel Caculitan said the troops under the 8th Marine Battalion Landing Team (MBLT) had been dispatched to one of the villages in Tipo-Tipo to check reports that Bossi had been sighted with his captors there.

The troops, however, ran into about 300 armed men composed of MILF rebels backed by Abu Sayyaf militants, triggering the firefight.

Caculitan said the fate of the missing Marines remained unknown.

"They may be alive, they may be dead. They remain to be accounted for," he said.

The headless bodies of the four soldiers were recovered early yesterday by authorities in Basilan and turned over to the military.

It may seem hard to believe, but there appears to be a local group with ties to these extremists.

Troops have been sent to Basilan on reports that Bossi had been brought to the province by his kidnappers.

Officials have issued conflicting statements on the identity of the groups which might have kidnapped Bossi, a 57-year-old missionary from Milan who was seized while on his way to celebrate Mass in Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay on June 10.

Authorities initially blamed renegade MILF commander Akkidin Abdusalam alias Kumander Kiddie for the kidnapping, but the group denied any role in the abduction and deployed forces in the initial weeks after the abduction to help government troops search for Bossi.

Might be time for a new alias too.

UPDATE: This isn't the first time that the nom de guerres chosen by Filipino terrorists have attracted attention.