2 BIFF members killed in shootout with cops in Maguindanao

Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao (Wikipedia maps)

COTABATO CITY – Two members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) were killed in a shootout with police in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, on Sunday night, police said.

Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, Maguindanao police director, identified the suspects as Raul Angkay and Edz Dalending who belonged to one of three factions in the BIFF.

All three BIFF groups operating in Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato, use ISIS black flags as revolutionary banners.

Affiliated with the Abu Sayyaf and Maute terrorist groups, the BIFF had been trying to overrun Army bases in Maguindanao to put up the ISIS flag and filmed it for publicity.

Tello, said joint elements of the Maguindanao police and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (CIDG-ARMM) were to serve warrants of arrest against the two at past 6 p.m. when they put up a fight.

Angkay, BIFF’s medical officer, was included in one of the two arrest orders issued by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana after President Duterte declared martial law last month in connection with the hostilities in Marawi City.

Dalending has warrants for string of criminal offenses, including bombings in major cities in Central Mindanao region.

The raiding team found a .45-pistol and a hand grenade in the house of the suspects in Barangay Labu-Labu.  SFM