BIFF fighters attack military camp in Maguindanao

Members of the breakaway Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). AFP FILE PHOTO

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Weeks after government forces launched an offensive against a base of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, the rebel group launched retaliatory attacks on a military camp in Maguindanao Friday night, a rebel spokesman said Saturday.

Abu Misry Mama, spokesman of the BIFF, said a newly formed guerrilla unit of the rebel group led the attack on a camp of the 2nd Mechanized Battalion of the 1st Mechanized Brigade in Salbu, Datu Saudi Ampatuan  around 11 p.m.

“Our fighters were able to slip through and go near the military camp and opened fire. My estimate is that almost 30 rounds of M-79 grenades were launched toward the camp,” Mama said.

Minutes after the attack, the rebels also fired on a convoy of soldiers sent in as reinforcements more or less a kilometer from the scene of the first firefight, Mama said.

“We know the soldiers sustained fatalities but we cannot give a body count because we were not able to do an assessment of the damage. It was very dark during the firefight,” Mama said.

Colonel Edgar Gonzales, chief of the military’s 1st Mechanized Brigade, said three soldiers were injured in the attack while at least three rebels were killed in the government’s counter-attack.

Mama, however,  claimed the BIFF suffered no casualties.

“Our troops were able to immediately conduct pursuit operations,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales denied that the second firefight resulted from a rebel ambush. He said it was actually the result of soldiers blocking a retreat by the rebels.

“These blocking forces engaged the fleeing rebels in that location,” Gonzales said.

Mama said the attack was only the beginning of more  and larger tactical offensives against government forces.

“More attacks will come. The military would not know where or when we will attack,” Mama said.

“These attacks are proof that the military failed in its objective to crush the BIFF. In fact, the BIFF is expanding and getting stronger,” Mama added.

The BIFF is a faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that broke away from the main rebel group as a result of disagreements over the conduct of peace talks with the government.