Mindanao Armed Conflict

KORONADAL CITY - A lady village chairperson in Sarangani province was killed by two gunmen riding tandem on motorbike on Sunday while she was walking near the village hall.

Police identified the victim as Chairperson Tonesa Sarudin of Barangay Mindupok, Maitum, Sarangani province. She died on the spot after she was shot by motorcycle–riding gunmen at a roadside fronting the Barangay Hall on Sunday.

A police report said Sarudin, 55, was walking beside the national highway at 9:55 a.m. when unidentified gunmen passed by her and opened fire.

COTABATO CITY --- Gunmen killed in an ambush on Sunday morning another barangay official in Polloc in Parang town in Maguindanao del Norte, the second since January.

Major Christopher Cabugwang, Parang municipal police chief, identified the fatalities as Abdulmalik Uban, village council member of Polloc who died instantly and his wife Salma Uban who expired in the hospital.

"They were shot by two gunmen along Rizal Avenue, Parang Public Market in Barnagay POblacion 2," Maj. Cabugwang said.

COTABATO CITY --- Gunmen killed a popular barangay chairman in Lebak, Sultan Kudarat in a daring daytime ambush Saturday in Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur.

In a statement Sunday, the Maguindanao Provincial Police Office said Danny Angkay and companions, together in a minivan, were attacked by gunmen on motorcycles while in a stretch of the Cotabato-Isulan Highway in Ampatuan town.

Angkay, who sustained gunshot wounds in different parts of his body, died on the spot.

COTABATO CITY --- Guns are silent in troubled barangays in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town since Wednesday but evacuees are reluctant to return without a truce between the two groups whose gunfights sent them running for their lives.

Local officials and barangay leaders told reporters Thursday no fewer than 2,000 villagers got displaced by the hostilities in Barangays Elian and Dapiawan in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur, some of them homeless now after one of the two feudal groups set their houses on fire on Tuesday night.

COTABATO CITY - Soldiers shot and wounded in an operation Sunday in nearby South Upi, Maguindanao del Sur a gunman wanted for criminal cases and harboring cattle thieves and extortionists.

The Teduray tribesman Romeo Kafitan, immediately yielded, both hands raised, when he sensed that his hideout in the secluded Sitio Kinemkem in Barangay Romongaob had been surrounded by personnel of the 57^th Infantry Battalion, dispatched to check his reported presence in the area.

DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Maguindanao Norte – Police are hunting down gunmen believed to be behind the twin but separate ambush incidents Monday in Maguindanao del Sur that left a village treasurer and a job order worker killed.

Mayor Reynalbert Insular of South Upi, Maguindanao del Sur, said he has already directed the municipal police office personnel to work with the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion in hunting down the ambushers of Robis Batitao, an LGU job order worker.

CAMP SK PENDATUN, Maguindanao Norte  – Police authorities in Lanao del Sur on Sunday killed three armed men and arrested seven others during pre-dawn law enforcement operation in the town of Bubong.

COTABATO CITY - Four were killed while four others were hurt in separate clashes Wednesday in Maguindanao del Sur between rival groups led by commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The first to perish in the two incidents is villager Baguer Laguiam, who was caught in the crossfire between rival MILF forces that figured in a gunfight in a secluded barangay in Radjah Buayan, Maguindanao del Sur.

UMAKYAT pa sa tatlo ang nasawi kabilang ang dalawang mga batang babae sa ambush sa Sitio Bagurot, Barangay Tuayan Mother, Datu Hoffer, Maguindanao Del Sur pasado alas 7:00 ng gabi nitong Lunes.

Sa panayam ng DXMS Radyo Bida kay Datu Hoffer town chief Police Captain Ramillo Serame, sinabi nito na ang mga nasawi sa pananambang ay ang padre de pamilya na si Sadam Mamasainged at ang anak nitong sina Hanafia na tatlong taong gulang pa lamang at ang walong buwang sanggol na si Hamdi.

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao Norte  – Military authorities here have claimed that it foiled bombing plots by Dawlah Islamiyah-Hassan Group members with the recovery of eight improvised explosive devices and death of five terrorist groups in Maguindanao del Sur.

The three-day military air and ground assaults that included the use of 155-mm Autonomous Truck Mounted Howitzers Systems (ATMOS) of the Army was aimed at pursuing DI group of about 30 massing in the borders of Pagalungan and Datu Montawal towns in Maguindanao del Sur.