Military-type firearms seized by soldiers in Maguindanao del Norte

COTABATO CITY — Soldiers seized two M16 assault rifles, a grenade launcher and a machinegun left by local terrorists while fleeing from Barangay Kakar in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte on Friday.

Major Gen. Alex Rillera, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told reporters on Sunday that the military-type firearms were left by suspected members of the Dawlah Islamiya when they sensed that patrolling personnel of the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion were approaching their location in Barangay Kakar.

One of the weapons that soldiers found along the escape route of the terrorists is a crew-served .30 caliber machinegun.

Rillera said soldiers under the 1st Mechanized Infantry Battalion under the 601st Infantry Brigade are tightly guarding Barangay Kakar and nearby villages in Datu Odin Sinsuat that heavily armed groups, locked in deep-seated animosity with certain villagers, repeatedly attacked in recent weeks.

“Everything is being done to prevent them from coming back,” Rillera said.

Rillera said that units under the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region are helping Army intelligence agents identify the owners of the confiscated assault rifles, M79 grenade launcher and a .30 caliber machinegun for them to be prosecuted for illegal possession of firearms in absentia.