(RTTNews) - The Philippines government has rushed hundreds of additional troops to a southern province after gunmen linked to a local politician kidnapped and killed more than 22 persons in an attack blamed on clan warfare ahead of next year's elections.

One battalion of about 500 infantrymen was sent to Maguindanao province on Mindanao island after Monday's massacre "to go after the criminals," military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Romeo Brawner said.

Brawner said the unit, which would bolster the 3,000-strong force already based in the area, was under orders to arrest the followers of incumbent governor Andal Ampatuan, who is accused of being behind the abduction of more than 40 journalists and supporters of his rival, Esmael Mangudadatu, the vice mayor of Buluan, a town in Ampatuan.

The military said 22 bodies--most female, some beheaded and mutilated--had been found in a mass grave in a remote mountainous area and the number was likely to rise as soldiers dug further at the site. Troops were also tasked with finding over 20 other people who were abducted and remain missing.
Condemning the brutal killings, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Philippine president ordered the acting defense secretary and acting chief of staff of the armed forces to fly to Maguindanao to oversee the operations against the murderers.

"No effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law," she said in a statement. "Civilized society has no place for this kind of violence."

Meanwhile, human rights and journalist groups condemned the killings. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said that if the journalists were killed, the incident would be the "largest single massacre of journalists ever".

Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, said covering the news has always been dangerous in the Philippines, but the wanton killing of so many people makes this an assault on the very fabric of the country's democracy

by RTT Staff Writer

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