11 Daesh supporters die in Mindanao air attacks

From the Gulf Today (Mar 15): 11 Daesh supporters die in Mindanao air attacks

At least 11 members of a Moro secessionist group that has pledged allegiance to the Daesh extremists in the Middle East were killed in air attacks launched by the military on their hideouts in Maguindanao province in restive Mindanao.

Captain Ervin Encinas, the spokesman of an Army division, reported that several other members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) that seceded from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (BIFF) were also wounded in the attacks on their hideouts in two villages in the town of Datu Sabili in Maguindanao on Monday afternoon.

Encinas disclosed that among the targets of the attacks were three foreign terrorists, one of whom was identified as Mohammad Ali alias Muawiyah, a senior leader of the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah extremists and a bomb expert.

But Encinas did not report whether Ali, who carries a $500,000 bounty on his head offered by the US government, whether he was killed or wounded in the attacks launched by rocket-firing Air Force helicopters.

He also admitted that about 300 families, or about 15,000 individuals, evacuated from the two villages to get out of harm’s way as ground troops moved in.

The BIFF is one of three terror groups that expressed support for the Daesh, which enabled the Middle East extremists to establish at least 50 cells in Lanao del Norte and Central Mindanao, according to the military.

But the military assured they were on top of the situation, pointing that the cells were small and did not constitute a security threat because majority of the people were for peace instead of violence.

The two others, the military said, are the Maute Group and the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf terrorists who gained notoriety through a spate of kidnap-for-ransom cases that were often marred by the beheading of their Filipino and foreign hostages.

In a related development, police reported the Abu Sayyaf, meaning “bearer of the sword,” had released a teacher of a public high school they abducted in Sulu on Friday afternoon.

Villagers found Ibrahim Potong wandering in a forested area in the town of Maimbung, Sulu but police could not say whether a ransom has been paid.

Potong was aboard a motorcycle on his way home to Maimbung from work at the national high school in the capital town of Jolo, Sulu when he was abducted by the Abu Sayyaf.

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