MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Six bandits were killed while two soldiers were wounded in firefights in Datu Salibo town on Tuesday, the seventh in Maguindanao province in the past six days.
Local officials said the slain members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) were carried away by their companions as they retreated deep into a marsh that connects to the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta.
Four of the BIFF fatalities were initially identified only as Karim, Sindatu, Kuting and Akmad, who were killed when an 81 millimeter mortar soldiers fired to prevent them from closing in landed and exploded in their position.
Captain Jo-ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, on Wednesday said two soldiers were wounded in the ensuing encounter.
The wounded soldiers are now being treated of their minor gunshot wounds, she added.
“We don’t have body count of BIFF fatalities but local folks keep telling Army units in the area that several members of the group had indeed been killed in the encounter,” Petinglay said.
The latest Army-BIFF hostilities erupted when bandits showed force in a secluded peasant enclave west of Datu Salibo, despite objection by local Moro villagers.
Villagers have long been complaining of the BIFF’s excessive mulcting of “protection money” and harsh enforcement of a Taliban-style justice system there.