Clashes leave 14 Moro rebels, 4 soldiers dead in Maguindanao

Government troops have killed at least 14 Moro militants aligned with the Islamic State group in a weeklong offensive in Maguindanao province that also left four soldiers dead, a regional military commander said on Saturday.

Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said an unspecified number of militants, including gunmen belonging to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, were wounded in clashes in the towns of Ampatuan and Datu Hoffer Ampatuan in Maguindanao.

The bodies of five of the slain militants were recovered by government forces, he said, adding that 10 soldiers were wounded in the fighting.

The Islamic State group claimed that militants killed 43 soldiers using explosives while repulsing the recent military assaults in two Maguindanao villages, but Sobejana said the claim was “untrue.”

Government forces launched airstrikes and artillery fire on an encampment of the militants in Salman village in Ampatuan on Monday after receiving intelligence that the gunmen were plotting attacks, the military said.

Troops later assaulted the encampment and another group of armed militants in Datu Hoffer Ampatuan, seizing firearms, ammunition and homemade bombs, the military said.

The largest Muslim rebel group in the southern region, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, signed an autonomy deal with the government in 2014, ending decades of separatist insurrection.