COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Nine Dawlah Islamiya terrorists were killed while six others were wounded in a series of clashes with soldiers that started on Thursday afternoon and went on until early Friday in Barangay Tapurog in Piagapo, Lanao del Sur.
Local officials and members of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Peace and Order Council were quoted in radio reports here on Saturday as saying that the gunfight that resulted in the death of nine local terrorists involved members of the Dawlah Islamiya, operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and personnel of units under the Army's 103rd Infantry Brigade.
Officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region here said initial reports from their units in Lanao del Sur indicated that the hostilities in a secluded area in Barangay Tapurog erupted when Dawlah Islamiya terrorists opened fire at soldiers dispatched to check their presence in the area, forcibly collecting money and rice from hapless villagers.
Army Brig. Gen. Yegor Rey Baroquillo Jr., commander of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade, had told reporters that the group that figured in the encounter with pursuing soldiers were earlier reported as coddling at least three suspects in the bombing on December 3 of Catholic worshipers attending mass inside the Dimaporo Gymnasium at the Mindanao State University campus in Marawi City.
Four Catholics were killed while more than 50 others were hurt in the attack that residents, local executives and Islamic religious leaders in Marawi City and in Lanao del Sur condemned in strongest terms.
Baroquillo corroborated assertions by local officials and members of the Islamic religious communities in Lanao del Sur that nine Dawlah Islamiya terrorists perished in the encounter in Barangay Tapurog.
Two Maranao preachers, Samsudin Bedari and Hussin Ambor, and Baroquillo separately told reporters that the slain terrorists, initially identified only as Riman, Mohaimen, Mauwiyah, Muhajir, Imam Gutiz, Abdullah, Mikdad, Hamza and Omar, were carried away by companions as they fled when they sensed that Army reinforcements were closing in.
Traditional Maranao leaders said six other Dawlah Islamiya members, Ramla, Muktar, Ekram, Arip, Mansur and Kalim, were wounded in the gunfight.