Soldiers foil MILF attack, kill 6 guerrillas

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Soldiers foiled an attempt by Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels to take over an Army detachment along the national highway in Maguindanao Tuesday night, killing six of the attackers and wounding five others.

The MILF, in a report posted on its website, www.luwaran.com, confirmed the attack, but denied that six of its guerrillas were killed.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the MILF forces first surrounded the detachment of the Army’s 46th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Matalam, Talayan town and then opened fire with B-40 anti-tank rockets and assault rifles.

Ponce said the MILF rebels could have underestimated the firepower of the soldiers manning the detachment.

Although outnumbered, he said the soldiers returned fire and engaged the rebels in an hour-long firefight, which waned only when the latter ran out of ammunition and withdrew.

“They must have assumed that the soldiers there were not prepared for enemy attacks,” Ponce said.

In the past two weeks, the 46th IB thrice prevented attempts by MILF rebels to explode roadside bombs along the Cotabato-General Santos Highway in the adjoining Maguindanao towns of Talayan, Guindulungan and Datu Angal.

The attack in Talayan “could be in retaliation for the prompt prevention of those attempted bombings,” Ponce said.

He said informants, among them barangay officials, confirmed that six MILF fighters were killed in the firefight.