Remnants of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF),
now under the leadership of a more radical guerilla, harassed two military
detachments in Maguindanao on Thursday night and Friday dawn, leaving five
soldiers slightly wounded, the military said.
The BIFF fired rifle grenades toward the detachment of 2nd
Mechanized Infantry battalion in Barangay Magaslong, Datu Saudi Ampatuan,
Maguindanao at 10 p.m., Capt. Joann Petinglay, speaking for the 6th Infantry
Division, said.
“They were remnants of the BIFF who wanted to get back at
us," Petinglay said.
She said the attackers who launched the offensives under
cover of darkness immediately fled when the Army returned fire using cal. 30
machine guns.
At about 4 a.m., another band of BIFF guerrillas fired rifle
grenades toward another Army detachment in nearby Barangay Sambolawan, Datu
Salibo, Maguindanao.
Nobody was hurt in the dawn attack.
Petinglay could not say if the attackers suffered fatalities
when the military returned fire.
But Abu Misry Mama, the BIFF spokesperson, claimed six
soldiers were killed and an armored personnel carrier was destroyed during the
attacks.
Petinglay laughed off Mama's claim, describing it as
hallucination.
On Wednesday night, suspected BIFF harassed the 1st
Mechanized Infantry Brigade in Datu Saudi Ampatuan in Maguindanao.
The BIFF offensive came three days after BIFF founding chair
Ameril Umra Kato died of cardiac arrest Tuesday. His deputy, Sheik Ismael
Abubakar alias Commander Bungos, a more radical rebel leader, assumed as new
BIFF chair.
The military’s law enforcement operations against the BIFF,
which began on February 27, was terminated on March 30 on orders of AFP chief
Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang.
But the Army said small scale and surgical operations
continue as there were still remnants of the BIFF in the so called ‘SPMS
Square,’ which refers to the adjoining towns of Shariff Aguak, Pagatin (Saudi
Ampatuan), Mamasapano and Shariff Saydona, all in Maguindanao where the BIFF
use to have camps and control.
The Army claimed to have killed 151 BIFF while the
government side suffered 10 fatalities during the month-long all out offensives
that displaced 120,000 individuals in Maguindanao.
About 50,000 individuals remained in various evacuation
sites while majority have returned home.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=753859
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