PHILLIPPINE MILITARY TAKING BACK COASTAL NEIGHBORHOODS FROM JIHADISTS

The Filipino army has run an offensive against the Muslim terrorists clogging up the coastal arteries in the south of the Phillippines:

Nearly 100 Muslim guerrillas who have held scores of people hostage for a week in a southern Philippine city have been killed or captured in an offensive to retake rebel-held coastal communities, officials said Sunday.

Army troops and police special forces have regained rebel-held grounds and are pressing an assault deeper into communities in the coastal outskirts of Zamboanga city, where more than 100 Moro National Liberation Front guerrillas are holding an unspecified number of hostages, military spokesman Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala said.

"We're gaining ground, we're pushing forward," he said.

Troops are calibrating their firepower to avoid harming civilians, Zagala said.

At least 51 rebels have been killed and 42 others captured, most while trying to escape along the coast after discarding their camouflage uniforms for ordinary clothes, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said, adding that the gunmen would face criminal charges.

It was a huge, greivous error for the government to make any deals with the terrorists, and now, they'll be doing the right to cancel that deal once and for all.