13 IS link armed men die in AFP offensives in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO -- Thirteen members of the Islamic State-inspired Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters were killed while five others were wounded in encounters with the military on Christmas Day.Army officials and Senior Supt. Agustin Tello of the Maguindanao provincial police office said Monday BIFF gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers first attacked at about 10:00 p.m. Sunday a detachment of the 57thInfantry Battalion in Barangay Maitemaig, Datu Unsay.The soldiers in the detachment, warned by villagers of a possible BIFF attack early on, managed to drive the bandits away, after an hour-long gunfight, carrying five wounded companions.Moro community elders identified the injured bandits as Said Abunawas, Khong Salik, Usman Sumablao, Andang Sanged and Mudin Alemansa.The retreating bandits set on fire houses of ethnic Teduray villagers along their escape route.The owners of the houses have evacuated earlier to safer areas after learning of the group’s plot to harass them on Christmas Day.All three factions in the BIFF are using the flag of the Islamic State as revolutionary banner.BIFF leaders, mostly clerics, are eloquent in fomenting animosity to non-Muslims.Teduray and Moro peasants in areas where the BIFF operate have long been ranting on its collection of protection money on periodic basis.The BIFF has also been subjecting them to a brutal Taliban-style justice system, an affront to the barangay governments run by duly elected officials implementing community law-enforcement programs based on the Local Government Code.The Army’s 6thInfantry Division and the Tactical Operations Group 12 of the Philippine Air Force launched before dawn Monday artillery and aerial offensives against the fleeing BIFF gunmen as they reached hinterlands far from populated areas.Members of the multi-sectoral peace and order councils in Datu Unsay, Datu Saudi, Shariff Aguak and South Upi towns said 13 BIFF bandits were killed by explosive rockets fired from a distance by Augusta AW109 attack helicopters.Army artillery bases in nearby towns bombarded with 105 Howitzer cannons three BIFF groups from Datu Saudi and Datu Hoffer towns that tried to reinforce their beleaguered companions, preventing them from closing in.Abu Misry Mama, spokesman of one of three factions in the BIFF, has confirmed losing many companions in the military counter-attack.He told reporters the BIFF will avenge the deaths of their companions killed in its latest encounters with units of 6thID, which has jurisdiction over Maguindanao province.