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(CNN) -- Malaysian security forces launched an operation early Tuesday morning targeting "armed intruders" from the Philippines, Malaysian state news said.
The operation began
around 7 a.m. Tuesday (6 p.m. ET Monday) in Lahad Datu on the Malaysian
island of Borneo, Malaysia's official Bernama news agency reported.
The standoff began last
month when more than 100 men from the mainly Muslim southern Philippines
came ashore in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo, demanding to be
recognized as representatives of a sultanate that has historical claims
on the area.
Over the weekend, the president of the Philippines ordered the group of rebels to surrender.
"From the very start, our
objective has been to avoid the loss of lives and the shedding of
blood," Benigno Aquino III said in a statement Saturday. "If you have
grievances, the path you chose was wrong. The just, and indeed, the only
correct thing for you to do is to surrender."
The peculiar standoff has
its roots in a recent landmark peace deal between Manila and Muslim
rebels, according to experts on the region.
The group's claims touch
on an unresolved territorial question between the Philippines and
Malaysia, as well as Manila's efforts to improve relations with Islamic
insurgents in the country's south after decades of violence.
Malaysian police and
armed forces soon surrounded the village in the eastern Sabah district
of Lahad Datu, where the men had gathered. Police officials said they
were negotiating with the group in an effort to persuade its members to
return to their homes in the Philippines peacefully.
Clashes in the area have claimed the lives of nine policemen and 19 "intruders," Bernama reported.
CNN's Alba Prifti contributed to this report.
Posted in: World news
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