THE military-backed police operations against guerrillas belonging to a Moro rebel breakaway faction have been scaled down to clearing operations, a military official said on Friday.
However, the military operations have already resulted in the killing of at least 52 guerrillas, 19 of them already identified, said Maj. Dante Gania, public-affairs officer of the Army’s 6th Infantry “Kampilan” Division.
On the side of the government, the casualty remained at 13 wounded and one killed.
Gania said the law-enforcement operations or the serving of the warrants of arrest against members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIIF) who were allegedly involved in the beheading of two civilians and the attack of a village in Pikit, North Cotabato, in September last year are continuing.
“The clearing operations are still ongoing, we are still serving the warrants,” he said.
Gania said the clearing operations are concentrated in several barangays in the towns of Shariff Saidona Mustapha, Datu Piang and Rajah Buayan in Maguindanao.
Several barangays in the three towns, including Ganta and Bakat in Shariff Saidon Mustapha, were the scene of heavy fighting during the past days that saw the guerrillas using homemade bombs and mortars against the soldiers.
The soldiers, on the other hand, captured the BIFF’s headquarters, as well as training and bomb-making facilities.
“This is a good development, because it will definitely lessen the threat of the BIFF guerillas to use improvised explosive devices,” Gania said.
He said that among those that were recovered from the BIFF’s bomb-making facility were old mortar shells and rounds of rocket-propelled grenades.
Because of the fighting, at least 7,000 affected residents remained in evacuation centers and their needs are being taken care of by members of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Col. Dickson Hermoso, 6th Infantry Division spokesman, said 13 of the dead BIFF members were minors.
“They were child fighters because they were in fatigue uniforms with BIFF markings and possessing firearms,” Hermoso said.
He said the guerrillas are now contained in Barangay Ganta and manifested limited resistance during the offensive.
An Army source said the remaining BIFF members are expected to surrender owing to lack of ammunition, manpower and food supplies, “because the Army contained them in an isolated community in the marshland.”
“Hopefully, with this development, the fighting will die down and the internally displaced persons may return home,” Hermoso said.
But Abu Misry Mama, speaking for the BIFF, maintained the breakaway group sustained only four fatalities, whom he called “martyrs.”
“Our stance remains, we will fight to the last drop of our blood in defense of our rights,” Mama said in a telephone interview.
Hermoso admitted not among the 20 BIFF members with warrants of arrest have been arrested, as the process of presenting the legal documents to individual persons was hampered by BIFF’s violent reaction.
Hermoso hinted that the Army might stop the offensive in a day or two.
Hermoso said the Army also alerted local governments in communities and towns outside the Maguindanao marshland which, traditionally, are being targeted by BIFF for diversionary attacks.
“The troops in the cities and provinces around the marshland are already on alert since Day One because our experience in the past showed that the BIFF carries out diversionary tactics to ease the heat in Maguindanao,” Hermoso said, adding, “we are pretty well aware of that, and we are ready.”
The fighting in Maguindanao came a day after the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front signed the final annex of the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement, which the BIFF strongly opposed.
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/en/news/nation/26812-government-forces-scale-down-attack-against-biff-guerrillas
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