12 more BIFF members killed in clash

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  – A dozen more members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) had been killed in a series of encounters in Maguindanao in the past 24 hours, the military said.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said soldiers had recovered a dozen firearms beside the cadavers of the slain bandits.

Hermoso said about 20 of the 52 bandits killed by soldiers in the calibrated “police action” against the group had been identified with the help of local officials and barangay leaders.

A soldier was killed while 13 other enlisted Army personnel were wounded in the ensuing firefights with BIFF gunmen since Monday dawn.

“Some of the BIFF fatalities were adolescents the group had recruited for warfare purposes,” Hermoso said.

The 6th ID’s offensive against the BIFF was apparently triggered by a spate of attacks on farming communities, and bombings the group had perpetrated in recent months.

Local officials in Datu Piang, scene of the fiercest Army-BIFF clashes in the past five days, said the bandits have abandoned their lairs in several barangays in the municipality, and along portions of the Liguasan Marsh, which separates Maguindanao and North Cotabato.

The surroundings of Datu Piang have been silent since Friday morning, but  government combatants  continue to pursue  fleeing BIFF bandits to prevent them from regrouping.

“We’re also guarding stretches of highways and farming villages in the surroundings which they can subject to diversionary attacks,” Hermoso said.