3 more Dawlah Islamiya bandits killed in Maguindanao hostilities
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 11:30 AM Sat Mar 14, 2020
2
By:
John M. Unson
Contributed photos
COTABATO CITY --- Soldiers on Saturday found three more dead Dawlah Islamiya gunmen killed by soldiers in clashes this week in upland areas in Maguindanao province.
The cadavers of Abdul Dinas, Mosani Lomen and Pendih Sanggutin bore gunshot and shrapnel wounds sustained in gunfights with Army units that cleared from Dawlah Islamiya bandits the strategic hills in the border of Ampatuan and Datu Hofer towns.
Dinas and Sangutin are both radical clerics, according to members of the municipal peace order and councils in the second district of Maguindanao.
Local officials said Dinas is nephew of wanted Dawlah Islamiya bomb-maker Salahudin Hassan.
Personnel of the Army’s 57th, 33rd, 40th Battalions and the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion, all under the 601st Brigade, have killed 17 Dawlah Islamiya gunmen in a series of clashes that started on March 2 and lasted until Thursday.
Four soldiers were also killed in the ensuing skirmishes.
The 601st Brigade launched on March 2 the operation meant to restore government control over the Upper Salman and Tuayan areas at the boundary of Maguindanao’s Ampatuan and Datu Hofer towns.
Col. Jose Narciso, commander of the 601st Brigade, said soldiers found more than a dozen improvised explosive devices, firearms and materials for roadside bombs in makeshift guerilla encampments in the adjoining Upper Salman and Tuayan hinterlands.
He said soldiers are still clearing the farm trails crisscrossing the areas from booby traps that Dawlah Islamiya bandits laid as they fled in haste.
The Dawlah Islamiya, also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters that uses the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as banner, is blamed for all deadly bombings in central Mindanao since 2014.
Photos: The belongings of BIFF bandits found by soldiers in their bombed out enclaves. (Contributed photos)