4 Moro rebels killed, 2 gov’t troops hurt in Maguindanao
COTABATO CITY—Four Moro rebels were killed while two soldiers were wounded when government forces and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) members clashed anew in Maguindanao province on Monday.
The fighting started after the rebels tried but failed to overrun two military installations.
The dawn skirmishes sent civilians fleeing at a time when they were observing the fasting month.
Col. Dickson Hermoso, 6th Infantry Division spokesperson, told reporters that the Army, anticipating attacks from the BIFF during the fasting month, repulsed attempts to overrun their bases in two Maguindanao towns.
Abu Misry Mama, speaking for the BIFF, admitted in a phone interview with the Inquirer that they carried out the attack and would continue to do so until the military releases a man and his son, whom they seized in Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao on July 3.
Hermoso, however, denied that they abducted Mohammad Abdulkarim and his son Mehad Mohammad, 14. Hermoso said two groups of BIFF guerrillas separately attacked military detachments in Barangay (village) Dumablas in Datu Piang town and Barangay Ganta in Shariff Saydona town, known as BIFF bailiwicks.
Citing reports from the field, Hermoso said about 50 heavily armed BIFF rebels harassed at 12:15 a.m. the Army base in Dumablas, triggering a two-hour firefight.
About an hour later, another group of BIFF rebels attacked an Army patrol base in Ganta, triggering an hourlong skirmish.
The fatalities were taken by BIFF men as they retreated following the two-hour firefight, Hermoso said, quoting villagers.
Hermoso confirmed that two soldiers were injured in the encounter. He also admitted that civilians from Ganta had fled to safer grounds following the BIFF attack.
He added that reports of civilians being wounded were being verified by government troops.
The twin attacks came hours after government forces found and properly defused an improvised explosive device fashioned from an 81-mm mortar with a mobile phone as triggering device that was left at a roadside near an Army base in Barangay Lower Salbu in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town, Maguindanao.
Hermoso said sporadic skirmishes followed after the fierce firefight that ended past 5 a.m. Edwin O. Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao
