THREE members of the terrorist group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) were killed in a firefight with government troops in Shariff Saydona Mustapha town in Maguindanao yesterday.
Troops from the Joint Task Force Central were conducting a military operation in Sitio Proper, Barangay Linantangan at around 5 a.m. when they encountered about 10 BIFF members under Muslimin Amilil, alias Mus, of the 2nd Division of the BIFF Karialan faction, said Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan Jr., chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command.
Seven of the BIFF members managed to flee, leaving behind their three slain comrades and three cal. 45 pistols, two hand grenades, eight grams of shabu, and a P1,000 cash.
The cadavers and the recovered war materiel were brought to the headquarters of the in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town in Maguindanao for “identification, documentation and proper disposition.”
In Ampatuan town on Saturday, troops from the task force seized an abandoned BIFF camp in Sitio Tubak, Barangay Saniag.
Maj. Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of JTF Central and of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the camp can accommodate 80 to 100 persons. It has 12 foxholes, 11 bunkers, three guard posts, and running trenches.
The BIFF, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq in Syria a few years ago, is behind a number of atrocities, including bombings, in some parts of Mindanao.
The group is estimated to have at least 100 to 150 men, mostly former members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front which signed a peace accord with government in 2014.
