BIFF guns down 2 soldiers in Maguindanao hospital

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

MANILA, Philippines — Members of an Islamic rebel group in Mindanao killed two soldiers who were guarding outside a hospital, an Army official said.

Colonel Dickson Hermoso, 6th Infantry Division spokesman, said seven members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters gunned down two soldiers securing the newly-renovated Integrated Provincial Health Office in Maguindanao.

The incident happened at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Barangay (village) Limpongo, Datu Hoffer town, Maguindanao.

Hermoso said the perpetrators were “posing as relatives of severely ill-patients” and shot the soldiers who were part of the 45th Infantry Battalion.

The soldiers were not yet identified as the family has yet to be notified of the deaths.

The BIFF rebels then took the M-14 and M-16 rifles issued to the soldiers during their escape.