At least 4 rebels from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement and two soldiers were killed in the fighting over the weekend, according to Col. Dickson Hermoso, a spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division in central Mindanao.
He said the fighting erupted in North Cotabato’s Aleosan town after rebel forces attacked troops in the villages of Tubak and Pagangan.
“Our operations against the ATG continue to protect the civilians and communities from terrorism,” he told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
ATG is the acronym for Auxiliary Threat Group which refers to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement and its army of so-called freedom fighters.
According to the Mindanao Human Rights Action Center, most of those who fled their villages have sought safe refuge in government schools and other areas far away from the fighting.
It said village officials reported that cannon shells landed in civilian areas in the village of Lagunde in the neighboring town of Pikit.
The rebels were largely blamed for the spate of attacks and a recent roadside bombing that wounded 7 soldiers in the town of Shariff Saydona Mustapha in Maguindanao province.
The soldiers, who belong to the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion, were in a truck and travelling in the village of Nabundas when the bomb went off.
The rebels were mostly former members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighting for independence in the troubled South. The MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group is now negotiating peace with Manila in an effort to end decades of bloody fighting in Mindanao. (Mark Navales)
20