Cop hurt in Maguindanao rebel attack

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — A policeman was hurt when militants simultaneously attacked on Friday night a police station and two Army outposts in Maguindanao province.

The wounded PO1 Usman Datuan of the Datu Unsay municipal police is now recuperating in a hospital.

Senior Superintendent Agustin Tello, director of the Maguindanao provincial police, said members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters crawled near the police station of Datu Unsay and opened fire, provoking a gunfight.

Although outnumbered, the personnel of the Datu Unsay municipal police returned fire and outflanked their attackers, preventing them from closing in.

BIFF gunmen also fired assault rifles at two nearby Army detachments immediately after gunshots reverberated through the surroundings of the Datu Unsay town hall where its local police station is located.

No one was hurt from among soldiers inside the detachments in Barangay Meta in Datu Unsay and in nearby Datu Saudi town, also in Maguindanao, that bandits also attacked at the same time.

Local officials said the BIFF incursions Friday night were meant to avenge the deaths of six bandits in a military-supported anti-terror operation by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Sharif Saidona town in Maguindanao early this week.

Guerillas of the MILF attacked gunmen from a third faction in the BIFF in Barangay Pusaw, Sharif Saidona while converging there suspiciously, displaying the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

The militants, led by Esmael Abdulmalik, escaped after a three-hour firefight with MILF guerillas carrying six dead companions.

The MILF and the government are bound by a 1997 security pact, the Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities, to  cooperate in neutralizing terrorists and criminals in potential flashpoint areas in the south.

Tello said police personnel in towns vulnerable to BIFF attacks are on full alert following Friday’s attack on the Datu Unsay municipal police station.