KIDAPAWAN CITY – Security forces seized old and rusty guns from an alleged “firearms factory” being used by militants, whose group is tied to the Islamic State, in southern Philippines, officials said Wednesday.
Officials said police commandos, backed by army soldiers and armoured vehicles, raided several houses in the village of Tonggol in General Salipada Pendatun town suspected of being a weapons factory for the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
Military photos released to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner show illegal weapons seized from an alleged weapons factory in the troubled province of Maguindanao. Also troops headed by Lieutenant Colonel Harold Cabunoc, of the 33rd Infantry Battalion, and an armoured vehicle used in the operation.
The Tuesday raid, led by Lieutenant Colonel Harold Cabunoc, of the 33rd Infantry Battalion, was part of an operation aimed at weakening the BIFF’s access to illegal weapons. The raiders recovered a lathe machine, two anti-tank rocket launchers, one .45-caliber pistol, a shotgun, rifle grenades and several homemade guns.
“To keep our winning edge against a highly adaptive enemy in a complex environment, we employed different capabilities to maximize combined arms effects. The synergized effort enables the police commandos to serve the warrants against the suspects,” Cabunoc said.
Military and police forces failed to arrest or capture any BIFF militant, but over a dozen civilians were briefly held for questioning and eventually freed.
BIFF militants have previously attacked police and military targets in the province and in neighboring towns and have been fighting for a separate homeland in the troubled, but mineral-rich region. (With a report from Rhoderick Beñez.)
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