Troops take BIFF's Mamasapano camp

MAMASAPANO, Maguindanao - Soldiers on Monday hoisted the Philippine flag as their Muslim companions bow in prayer facing west at the center of once an impregnable enclave of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
 
The BIFF camp in Barangay Dasikil, occupied for more than three years by extremists led by Imam Karialan, was abandoned by the bandits after sensing the approaching Army and Marine combatants before midnight of Sunday.

Soldiers found materials and incendiary powders, such as ammonium nitrate used in the fabrication of improvised bombs in a hut within the abandoned BIFF camp.

Barangay folks said Karialan and his men ran towards the west of the Liguasan Delta after learning that soldiers were closing in, a total turn-around from earlier warnings they will defend their camp till death.

“They all ran away, so scared,” said a 56-year-old peasant Sidik Mandih.

Local folks said Karialan and his men had used the camp as springboard for their bombing attacks in Central Mindanao.

They also enforced a ruthless Taliban-style justice system in the area and imposed tax on the residents.

It was in the same encampment where the group kept the 10 firearms that its members collected from the police commandos they attacked and killed following the Special Action Force's January 25 raid at another barangay.

Policemen killed Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir in the operation, but they lost 44 police commandos.

An Army officer, who requested anonymity, said they still have to scour the surroundings of the camp for booby traps.

“These enemies are very treacherous so we have to double check the surroundings of this camp,” said the source, who asked not to be identified for lack of authority to speak on the issue.

Captain Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the camp was discovered by combined Army and Marine combatants late Sunday and was taken over after sunrise Monday.

Karialan,  a deputy of BIFF founder Imam Ameril Ombra Kato, was implicated in more than a dozen recent bombings in Central Mindanao, including three attacks in North Cotabato last year, which left six people dead and injured more than 50 others.

Petinglay said soldiers will continue to run after Karialan and his men.