2 terrorists dead in Maguindanao del Sur, Tedurays displaced by Dawlah Islamiya attack

COTABATO CITY — Authorities are bracing for a possible retaliation by the Dawlah Islamiya terror group that lost two men in a clash with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Maguindanao del Sur on Monday.

The 45-minute gunfight in Barangay Mother Tuayan in Datu Hoffer, Maguindanao del Sur erupted when Dawlah Islamiya terrorists intruded into an area where MILF members reside to collect money and food from farmers.

Timuay Anton Dian, Indigenous People’s Mandatory Representative to the municipal council of Datu Hoffer, and Bangsamoro Parliament Member Froilyn Mendoza told reporters on Tuesday that around 40 Teduray families in houses around the scene of the encounter have relocated to safe areas.

“We are calling on government relief agencies to extend to them relief support,” Mendoza, who is an ethnic Teduray, said.

Col. Roel Rullan Sermese, director of the Maguindanao del Sur provincial police, and Army Brig. Gen. Oriel Libres Pangcog of the 601^st Infantry Brigade confirmed the incident that resulted in the death of two Dawlah Islamiya members and assured the public of their interventions to prevent a repeat of the incident.

Officials of the municipal peace and order councils in Datu Hoffer and nearby Datu Unsay and Shariff Aguak towns told reporters Tuesday the Dawlah Islamiya members killed in the clash, cousins Muntas Samsudin Ansao and Salik Abdullah Mantato, died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds.

The sources, among them Moro datus, also reported to the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division in Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte that three other Dawlah Islamiya members, initially identified only as Saidamen, Mosib and Sanggutin, were wounded in the gunfight that caused panic among villagers.

The Dawlah Islamiya terrorists involved in the clash, led by Adbdulnasser Sangid Guinaid and a certain Odic, immediately scampered away when they sensed that more followers of the MILF leader in the area, Sagah Dingan Malandag, were closing in.

Guinaid and his companions carried their three wounded companions away as they fled toward the hinterland border of Datu Hoffer and Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur.