Publish in Philstar.com
NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - The brigand Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom
Fighters (BIFF) on Thursday simultaneously attacked Army detachments in
Midsayap, North Cotabato, causing widespread panic in surrounding
villages.
The soldiers manning the detachments in Midsayap’s Barangays
Polomogen and Baliki, and another near Barangay Indatun in Northern
Kabuntalan, Maguindanao managed to drive the attacking bandits away
after heavy exchanges of gunfire.
Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division,
said no one from among the soldiers assigned in the detachments was
killed or injured.
“But the incident triggered panic among peasant families in surrounding areas,” Hermoso said.
Hermoso said the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion, which has
jurisdiction over Midsayap and Northern Kabuntalan towns, deployed more
combatants in the detachments that came under fire to forestall a repeat
of the BIFF incursions.
Abu Misry Mama, spokesman of the BIFF, confirmed to reporters that
their forces were indeed responsible for the latest attacks in the two
towns.
Local officials said the BIFF attacks were meant to show the group’s
opposition to the on-going peace efforts of the government and the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
The founder of the BIFF, Saudi-trained cleric Ameril Ombra Kato,
started as chief of the MILF’s 105th Base Command, but was booted out in
2010 due to insubordination and other offenses.
The BIFF is not covered by the government-MILF 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities.
The group, which is fighting for an Islamic state, is opposed to the
creation of a Bangsamoro self-governing entity based on the final peace
accord between the government and the MILF, the March 27, 2014
Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.
Source: http://www.philstar.com/nation/2014/09/11/1367904/biff-attacks-army-detachments-n.-cotabato
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