Army battles Moro rebels opposing peace deal

From the Sun Star (Jan 27): Army battles Moro rebels opposing peace deal

Government troops clashed with hardline Muslim rebels opposed to the newly concluded peace deal with a main insurgent group and wounded at least two militants in ongoing fighting.

Regional Army Spokesman Col. Dickson Hermoso said police backed by troops were on the way to arrest commanders of the rebel Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) when the clash erupted Monday in a vast marshland of southern Maguindanao province.

Hermoso, speaking for the 6th Infantry Division, said the BIFF set off an improvised explosive device in Barangay Ulandang, Midsayap, North Cotabato while another band of guerillas were seen massing in the borders of Pikit, North Cotabato and the towns of Saydona Mustapha, Datu Piang and Sultan sa Barongis in Maguindanao.

Police also came under fire Sunday when they attempted to arrest the rebel group's commanders in Maguindanao.

The massing of BIFF forces came after the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the last of the four annexes of the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. [Read: Gov’t, MILF clinch peace deal]

“We have been trying to bend our tolerance but the bandits continue its lawlessness, we cannot allow this to happen,” Hermoso told reporters.

The Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade fired more than 20 rounds of 105 howitzers toward Barangay Paidu Pulangi in Pikit, North Cotabato Sunday to prevent the bandits from crossing toward North Cotabato.

As this shelling was happening, residents of Barangays Paidu Pulangi, Kabasalan and nearby villages, have fled to the town center to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

“So far no casualty was reported,” Hermoso said. “We act even before they can occupy civilian communities.”

More troops from the 7th Infantry Battalion based in Pikit were also moved to the North Cotabato-Maguindanao border as blocking force while the Army’s 2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade was deployed in the towns of Datu Piang, Shariff Saydona and Sultan sa Barongis in Maguindanao.

“We are containing the BIFF in one area in the marshland so they cannot sow terror in other areas,” Hermoso said.

Tahira Kalantungan, chair of the Pikit municipal disaster risk reduction and management council, said the local government has imposed forced evacuation to residents in the boundary of Maguindanao and North Cotabato.

“We have no actual number of evacuees, but we are asking them to leave their homes due to mortar shelling,” she said.

Rebel spokesman Abu Misry says two fighters were wounded by Army gunfire and shelling in the clashes.

The rebels involved in the fighting are opposed to Malaysian-brokered peace talks concluded Saturday between the government and the larger MILF.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/breaking-news/2014/01/27/army-battles-moro-rebels-opposing-peace-deal-325305