2 killed, 1 hurt in MILF-BIFF clash

From the Philippine Star (Oct 20): 2 killed, 1 hurt in MILF-BIFF clash

Two guerillas were reportedly killed while three others were wounded when rival forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the brigand Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters clashed in Maguindanao’s Mamamasapano town Friday, local officials said. The mayor of Mamasapano, Datu Bensar Ampatuan, told reporters the incident displaced dozens of poor Maguindanaon families, now confined in houses of relatives in villages far from the scene of the encounter. Ampatuan said the feuding groups, one led by a commander of the MILF’s 118th Base Command, and the other, under a certain follower of BIFF founder Ameril Umbra Kato, are squabbling for control of arable lands in a farming district in Mamasapano. Ampatuan said both sides suffered a fatality each. Three other combatants have also been wounded in the ensuing firefight, Ampatuan said. “This has nothing to do with the recent signing by the government and the MILF of the framework agreement in Malacañang,” Ampatuan said. Ampatuan, chairman of the Mamasapano peace and order council, has called on the government-MILF ceasefire committee to immediately pacify the two groups. According to evacuees, the feuding MILF and BIFF factions have also been competing with each other over collection of “zakat,” or alms, for the “revolution” from farming communities in Mamasapano. The government and the MILF, under the 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities, are to mutually cooperate in addressing peace and security areas in potential flashpoint areas in the South.

http://www.philstar.com/nation/article.aspx?publicationSubCategoryId=200&articleId=861507