Troops back MILF rebs fighting pro-IS group

JOINT PATROL A Moro Islamic Liberation Front member (left) and an Army soldier man a checkpoint in Datu Salibo town in Maguindanao as the government and Moro rebels pursue militants supporting the Islamic State. —AFP

DATU SALIBO, Maguindanao — The military said it had teamed up with old foes behind a long-running Muslim insurgency as it looks to eject a breakaway gang of radical militants pledging loyalty to the Islamic State (IS).

As artillery shells and rockets pounded targets in this farming town in Maguindanao province, soldiers were seen mingling freely with several hundred Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters who have joined an assault on gunmen here.

The joint operation is the latest tactic by the Philippine government to try to stamp out pro-IS fighters, after more than three months of battling a separate faction of militants who have besieged Marawi City in Lanao del Sur province, about 100 kilometers to the north.

Maj. Gen. Arnel dela Vega, commander of the military’s 6th Infantry Division, said militant groups had taken the opportunity “to build up their forces” while government troops were engaged in the Marawi conflict.

The alliance with MILF included “providing them with indirect fire support and even air support and other expertise,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP), adding that the awkwardness of fighting alongside former longtime foes had vanished.

A rebellion by the 10,000-strong MILF has claimed more than 100,000 lives, by government estimates. The group signed a peace treaty in 2014 but will not disarm before the government passes a proposed law granting autonomy to the Muslim regions of the Philippines, a largely Catholic nation.

But small factions continue to fight, as frustration builds over the bill, which has stalled in Congress.

The military is feeding intelligence to the MILF in the fight against about 60 militants led by Esmael Abdulmalik alias Abu Turaifi, a former MILF guerrilla leader, according to Dela Vega.

But he said government soldiers would not merge with the MILF fighting groups because they had “different operational tactics and procedures” in the conflict, which began in early August on marshlands here.

“By and large the result has been substantially in our favor,” Dela Vega said.

He said the deal was a “win-win” situation for both the government and the MILF.

Mohagher Iqbal, a senior MILF leader, said the breakaway Abu Turaifi-led militants wanted to steal the MILF’s guerrilla Army and had the same goals as the pro-IS militant faction seeking to carve out territory in Marawi.

The Marawi battle has left nearly a thousand people dead, but several dozen gunmen continue to resist months of airstrikes and still hold hostages.