AFP: Lanao Sur battlezone not MILF area

SEIZED Lt. Gen. Alfredo Rosario Jr. (second, from right), chief of the Western Mindanao Command, and other military officials on Thursday inspect firearms seized after clashes between government troops and Islamic State-linked groups in Maguing, Lanao del Sur. —RICHEL V. UMEL

MARAWI CITY — The Armed Forces of the Philippines maintained on Thursday that the Daulah Islamiyah (DI)-Maute group camp raided by troopers in Maguing, Lanao del Sur, was not within the territory of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Col. Ramon Zagala, AFP spokesperson, told the Inquirer that MILF representatives had confirmed that the target of the military operations on Tuesday at Barangay Ilalag were members of the Islamic State (IS)-linked DI and remnants of the Maute group.

The military issued the clarification after MILF chief and Bangsamoro region interim Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim claimed that their forces, which are in the process of being decommissioned, were the ones engaged by government troops.

“Our dear constituents in Maguing, Lanao del Sur, have been troubled from military airstrikes and most recently, firefight incident that involved members of the military and forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front,” Ebrahim said in a statement on Wednesday.

READ: Bangsamoro chief to military: It’s not terrorists’ haven but MILF territory

But Zagala said: “The MILF is our partner in peace. They will never be our target. I would like to assure [MILF chair Ebrahim] that our target was the Daulah Islamiyah,” Zagala said.

Brig. Gen. Jose Maria Cuerpo II, commander of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade, said what was raided by government troops was an IS camp near an MILF community in Ilalag.

According to Capt. Rey Jay Meneses, who led a company of the 51st Infantry Battalion, the terrorist lair was about 700 meters from the MILF camp and some 3 kilometers from the main road.

Meneses said that before they launched a ground assault, they passed by the house of an MILF commander in the area to inform him that Army troopers were pursuing “some enemies.”

Meneses said one MILF officer even suggested that the group they were pursuing could number 200.

More casualties

Zagala said: “They (MILF) also do not want peace spoilers in the area … The camp is situated in a mountainous area and is well outside MILF territory.”

On Wednesday, Army troopers, led by Cuerpo, visited the bombed-out lair, accompanied by officials of the MILF’s ceasefire committee in Lanao del Sur.

“While there, they interviewed witnesses, including those living in the nearest communities. The MILF peace mechanism representatives confirmed that our troops encountered DI-Maute group members,” Zagala said.

He said it was unfortunate that the “close air support” alarmed civilian communities. “But it was necessary so terrorism would not be able to take root in the area,” he added.

Cuerpo corrected a report from the Maguing local government that civilian houses in the area were damaged from the fighting and that several of them suffered injuries.

Cuerpo said five more bodies were found in the clash site, bringing to eight the total fatalities among militants.

The site was also littered with body parts which suggested there could be more casualties, said Lt. Col. Romulus Rabara, ground commander of the assault’s advance battalion.

Cuerpo said they were still confirming if the IS leader, Faharudin Hadji Satar alias Abu Zacharia, was among those killed in the attack. INQ

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