Reports are not entirely consistent. but it seems that a group of 41 Philippine Army soldiers, identified in most reports as special forces, ran into trouble in southern Basilan and took 19 dead and 12 wounded in a 6 hour fight. Apparently 6 were killed after being captured. The incident occurred not far from the site of a 2007 battle in which 23 Philippine Marines were killed, 14 of whom were beheaded. Reports say the army group was responding to the reported presence of an armed group including one of those responsible for the 2007 incident.

The opposing force was reportedly largely MILF, despite an ongoing cease fire and peace talks. The MILF central committee, which is far from Basilan and has limited control over its forces there, claims that their camp was attacked and they responded. The Army says their force was ambushed.

Reports from the field suggest that the Army group encountered a small armed group near an MILF camp, shooting started, and the MILF force and armed locals piled on. That's not at all unlikely. Several armed groups operate there, memberships overlap and blood ties abound, villagers are armed, and the Army is not popular. If something starts and there's a point of advantage (and an opportunity to possibly recover weapons) it's very likely that all kinds would respond.

Manila politicians are already claiming that the MILF leaders ordered the attack (unlikely) and demanding an end to the cease-fire and an aggressive military response. That plays well to the populace: the Christian majority largely sees Muslims as inherently treacherous and violent, and it's widely believed that they can only be controlled by stomping them into submission. The government says the peace process will continue.

I'm no expert on the military side, but there seems to be a repeating pattern of Philippine forces walking into these situations and taking heavy casualties, and a continuing inability to rapidly reinforce or support forces that run into trouble in the field. I have to wonder if US training and material support, which has been in place for quite a while now, is doing anything to address that.

Some links:

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx...bCategoryId=63

http://www.malaya.com.ph/oct20/news1.html

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/-depth/10...-forces-troops

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/79953/a...fire-with-milf

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/79823/a...-basilan-clash