Feuding MILF forces clash in Maguindanao

Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters (FILE PHOTO BY JEOFFREY MAITEM/ INQUIRER MINDANAO)

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — A man was wounded and several residents evacuated as fighting broke out between two commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Maguindanao on Thursday, a military official said Friday.

Captain Arvin Encinas, spokesperson of the military’s 6th Division based in Maguindanao, said soldiers and policemen had been deployed to the village of Barurao in the town of Sultan sa Barongis to pacify the groups of commanders  Jabick and Mulato of the MILF’s 105th Base Command.

Encinas said a civilian, Bong Indo, 24, was hit by a stray bullet when the two groups clashed past 1 p.m.

“Affected residents are now staying in one of the schools in a nearby village. The wounded civilian is out of danger,” he said.

The two commanders are locked in a dispute over control of strategic patches of land in Barangay Barurao, Encinas said. CBB/rga