MAGUINDANAO (Mindanao Examiner / May 12, 2014) – Suspected rebels on Monday bombed a convoy carrying soldiers in Maguindanao province in the restive Muslim autonomous region in southern Philippines, officials said.
Five soldiers were killed and wounded in the attack that sparked off heavy fighting in the town of Datu Unsay. The convoy carrying Col. Gener del Rosario, commander of the 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade, and troops were traversing the Meta Bridge when the bomb exploded.
The military blamed the attack on the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, which is fighting for an independent Muslim state.
Col. Dickson Hermoso, a spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division, said one soldier was killed in the fighting and that four more were wounded and had been evacuated to hospital.
“They were heading to the 6th Infantry Division headquarters in Awang town also in Maguindanao when the attack occurred. An IED exploded hitting the convoy. Heavy exchanges of fire ensued and one enlisted personnel was killed in action and four others are wounded,” Hermoso told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
But other reports said a second soldier had died from his wounds.
Hermoso said a military reinforcement pursued the attackers and caught up with them, engaging the rebels in a running gun battle. “The operation is going on against the BIFF,” he said.
The rebels used a 105mm howitzer in the attack.
It was unknown if there were enemy casualties, but just recently troops disarmed a homemade bomb planted outside the municipal hall of Shariff Aguak also in Maguindanao.
The recovery of the explosive came following a clash between Del Rosario’s forces and BIFF in the town of Rajah Buayan where troops recovered five automatic rifles and BIFF uniforms, including radio sets and backpacks left behind by rebels.
The military has blamed the BIFF for the series of attacks on government forces in Maguindanao. It also linked the BIIF to past bombings in the province. The BIFF – under former Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebel leader, Ustadz Ameril Umra Kato – has been fighting waging bloody war after it split with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in 2011.
Kato accused MILF leader Murad Ebrahim for abandoning their struggle for independence and betraying the rebel group when he agreed to a peace deal with Manila. Kato and another senior rebel leader, Abdulla Macapaar, were both accused by Philippine authorities as behind the series of deadly attacks in Mindanao in 2008 after peace negotiators failed to sign a Muslim homeland deal because the Supreme Court declared the accord unconstitutional.
Kato suffered a stroke in 2011, but his condition remains unknown, although there were reports that a new commander – Sheik Mohidin Animbang – has taken over the command of the BIFF, whose members were mostly former fighters of the MILF and rival group Moro National Liberation Front. (Mark Navales)
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