BIFF fighters attack patrol base

From Tempo (Jun 28): BIFF fighters attack patrol base

Around 40 elements of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), breakaway group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), attacked a patrol base of the 33rd Infantry Battalion at Barangay Bagumbayan, President Quirino, Sultan Kudarat, the Maguindanao-based 6th Infantry Division reported Wednesday.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, 6th ID spokesman, identified the leader of the alleged BIFF elements that staged the attack on June 21 as Zukarno Sapal alias Diok.

A few hours before the assault, militiaman Vicente Macaraeg of the 9th Sultan Kudarat CAFGU Company was shot dead by the same BIFF renegades while the victim was driving his motorcycle along the irrigation road in Barangay Bagumbayan to fetch his son from school, Hermoso said.

A farmer Roy Viola, 40, was also shot dead by the same BIFF elements while on his way to his farm in the same town, the Army official said.

The Army patrol base attackers were armed with RPGs, homemade 50-caliber sniper rifles and other high-powered firearms, Hermoso said.

An hour-long firefight flared up between the rebels and responding soldiers. No casualty has been reported so far.

http://www.tempo.com.ph/2013/06/biff-%EF%AC%81ghters-attack-patrol-base/#.Uc33bo7D9jo