MILF fighters kill 7 Dawlah Islamiya members in Maguindanao
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 16:45 PM Wed Dec 30, 2020
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By:
John M. Unson
COTABATO CITY --- Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front killed seven Dawlah Islamiya gunmen who tried to attack an Army detachment in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao Tuesday.
The slain terrorists were among more than 30 gunmen on light trucks and motorcycles en route to Barangay Tuka, Mamasapano where a detachment of the Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion is located.
Major Gen. Juvymax Uy of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division said Wednesday MILF members led by Samad Simpal had promptly blocked the convoy at the border Shariff Aguak and Shariff Saidona Mustapha towns, killing seven terrorists in an ensuing gunfight.
The Dawlah Islamiya has strong presence in Shariff Saidona Mustapha town in the second district of Maguindanao.
The Dawlah Islamiya, also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, operates in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and has been trying to derail the peace process between Malacañang and the MILF.
The MILF’s revolutionary figurehead, Hadji Ahod Ebrahim, is appointed chief minister of the newly-established Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Army intelligence sources said the Dawlah Islamiya group that clashed with MILF members Tuesday planned to surround and fire assault rifles at the Army detachment in Barangay Tuka.
“The terror plot was foiled immediately by our friends in the MILF,” Uy told reporters via online Messenger without elaborating.
The MILF and the national government are bound by security pacts enjoining both sides to cooperate in addressing security issues in potential conflict areas in all provinces of the now 23-month Bangsamoro region.
Uy said the seven slain terrorists were followers of Commander Motorola, a henchman of Iman Karialan, leader of one of three factions in the Dawlah Islamiya.
Karialan, a radical cleric, is tagged in deadly bombings in central Mindanao in the past four years.
Uy said their units have cautioned local officials and ranking MILF commanders in Maguindanao’s neighboring Shariff Saidona Mustapha and Mamasapano towns to guard against possible retaliation by the Dawlah Islamiya.
The group has a reputation for bombing public places and conveyances to avenge deaths of members in clashes with pursuing police and military personnel.