Members of the breakaway Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) line up inside their camp in Datu Saudi, Maguindanao. INQUIRER file photo
COTABATO CITY—Government forces on Monday captured a camp of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) following intense bombardment and ground offensives on the boundary between Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces, the military reported Tuesday.
As this developed, the police said at least eight BIFF members were captured as soldiers and policemen stormed an area in President Quirino town in Sultan Kudarat province, also on Monday.
Supt. Jomar Yap, Sultan Kudarat police chief, said bomb components were seized from the group.
Col. Edmund Pangilinan, 601st Infantry Brigade commander, said the captured BIFF camp was located in the border between the towns of Gen. Salipada K. Pendatun in Maguindanao and President Quirino in Sultan Kudarat province.
Pangilinan said the Army had to use 105 howitzers to drive away about 200 BIFF rebels who, on Saturday, attacked Barangay Bagumbayan in President Quirino, killed a militiaman and a farmer, and harassed a detachment of the 33rd Infantry Battalion.
Hermoso said at least 300 families fled their homes due to the violence.
Pangilinan described the seized camp as having perimeter defenses, checkpoints and guardhouses, running trenches and a sniper’s nest.
As the BIFF camp was falling, anothetr clash involving soldiers and the BIFF also erupted in Midsayap, North Cotabato, when the rebels attacked an Army patrol base there.
Senior Insp. Henry Narciso, Midsayap police chief, said the armed men attacked the patrol base in Sitio Tampad in Barangay Ulandang.
As they fled, Narciso said, the BIFF rebels also attacked another Army base in Barangay Balawag.
Soldiers and policemen recovered near the Army base an improvised explosive device fashioned from an 81-millimeter mortar shell and an unexploded rocket-propelled grenade.
The BIFF, founded by Ustadz Ameril Umra Kato, is a breakaway group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Kato left the MILF due to ideological differences with his former comrades.