Military vows to contain Maute Group

From the Philippine News Agency (Nov 28): Military vows to contain Maute Group

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will spare no effort nor resources to contain the Maute Group which is now the object of dislodgement operations in Butig town, Lanao Del Sur province.

AFP public affairs office chief Col. Edgar Arevalo said the military will continue with operations to prevent the bandits from spreading violence in other areas of the province.

"The AFP will continue to frustrate their sinister objectives as was manifested by the military's forthwith and continuing action in preventing the situation from escalating or spilling to other areas," he said.

Military operations has so far killed 11 of the terrorists and wounded five, while government forces sustained four wounded in the ongoing containment operations.

Butig residents have abandoned the town after receiving reports that the Maute Group, the suspects behind the deadly Davao City blast last Sept. 2, will attack the municipality again.

This is the second attack against Butig town. The first took place in February this year.

An estimated 50 to 100 terrorists are believed to be hold in the old Butig municipal building.

The bandits even raised the terrorist group Islamic State flag at the pole in the abandoned municipal compound in a bid to get support from the international terror group.

Arevalo earlier said the bandits' decision to hole up in Butig is a reaction to the military's ongoing offensive against the lawless band.

"We are already conducting operations and in anticipation of our action they (Maute Group) thought Butig will be our objective, so what they did they rushed to the place and occupied and (took defensive) positions there. Because of that, we were constrained into conducting operations to dislodge them," he added.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=943839