BIFF raid on Maguindanao police station thwarted

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao—Policemen stopped a group of Moro rebels who tried to overrun a police station in Datu Salibo town on Wednesday night, police said.

Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, Maguindanao provincial police director, said at least 10 members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, led by Kagi Karialan, fired at policemen after the group launched an M79 grenade that exploded outside the station in Barangay Sambolawan at 7 p.m. Tello said the undetermined number of policemen manning the station engaged the rebels in a 45-minute firefight.

The BIFF gunmen fled as soldiers from the 57th Infantry Battalion, who were sent to rescue the policemen, were nearing town. No policeman or rebel had been reported killed or wounded in the firefight, Tello said. —EDWIN FERNANDEZ