BIFF, Army trade fire in N. Cotabato

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Bandits simultaneously fired assault rifles and anti-tank rockets on Army detachments in Kabacan and Matalam towns Tuesday night, provoking a brief encounter that triggered panic among local folks.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) crawled near the positions of soldiers belonging to the 7th Infantry Battalion and attacked from different directions.

The soldiers engaged the BIFF gunmen in a four-hour firefight, preventing them from breaching the perimeter fences of the detachments at the border of North Cotabato’s adjoining Matalam and Kabacan towns.

Barangay leaders said the bandits scampered away after they ran out of ammunition, carrying at least four wounded companions.

The harassment of soldiers guarding strategic areas in the boundary of the two towns was preceded by the BIFF’s attack Tuesday morning of the 7th IB’s outposts in Barangays Kuyapon and Lower Paatan, both in Kabacan.

“Not a single soldier was hurt in these series of attacks. It was the civilians that again suffered from the brunt of these `anti-people activities’ of the BIFF,” Hermoso said.

Local officials said the atrocities the BIFF perpetrated scared villagers and forced them to relocate to safer areas.