The Moro conflict is an insurgency in the Mindanao region of the Philippines. In 1969, political tensions and open hostilities developed between the Government of the Philippines and Moro Muslim rebel groups. The Moro Insurgency was triggered by the Jabidah massacre, which saw the killing of 60 Filipino Muslim commandos on a planned operation to reclaim the eastern part of the Malaysian state of Sabah. In response, the University of the Philippines professor Nur Misuari established the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), an armed insurgent group that was committed to establishing an independent Mindanao. Over the successive years, the MNLF has splintered into several different groups including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which wanted to establish an Islamic state within th