COTABATO CITY – Four pro-ISIS militants have been captured by Filipino security forces in the troubled southern province of Maguindanao, officials announced Thursday.
Officials said one of those captured was a commander, Datu Parido Balabagan, whose group is allegedly planning to carry out terror attacks in Sultan Kudarat’s Lambayong town. Security forces also seized from the militants two M14 rifles, two anti-tank rocket launchers and three fragmentation grenades.
The operation – which was launched before sunrise Wednesday at a militant hideout in the village called Lumabao in General SK Pendatun town – was the result of an intensified campaign against terrorism and vital intelligence passed on by civilians.
The militants, all members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, were handed over to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and are currently under interrogation. Details of the interrogation were not made public by authorities and there was no immediate statement from the militant group on the arrest of its commander and fighters.
The BIFF is one of about a dozen militant groups that embraced the influence of ISIS and are not fighting for a caliphate in the restive, but mineral-rich region. (Mindanao Examiner)
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