Military: clash was with terrorists, not MILF forces 

MARAWI CITY --- The military on Thursday assured the public never can the Dawlah Islamiya again converge anywhere in Lanao del Sur the way it did in Maguing town that soldiers promptly cleared with air, artillery and ground assaults last Tuesday.

Brig. Gen. Jose Maria Cuerpo II, commander of the Army’s 103^rd Infantry Brigade, said Thursday the target of their anti-terror operation in Barangay Ilalag in Maguing, Lanao del Sur were terrorists, not members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front as some quarters have insinuated.

Lt. Gen. Alfredo Rosario, commander of the Western Mindanao Command,  presented to reporters, in an informal gathering here Thursday, the firearms, including crew-served machineguns, 40 millimeter grenade projectiles and B-40 anti-tank rockets left by Dawlah Islamiya members as soldiers broke through their defense perimeters in Barangay Ilalag.

The terrorists scampered away after soldiers felled four of their companions with automatic weapons in the ensuing encounter.

Jeannie Tamano, information officer of the Lanao del Sur provincial government, said Thursday the 103^rd Brigade has also reported that the Dawlah Islamiya bastion in Barangay Ilalag in Maguing that soldiers took over after day-long manuevers last Tuesday was the terror group’s last.

“We got assurance from Gen. Cuerpo that there is no more Dawlah Islamiya camp in that area,” Tamano told reporters.

Many of the terrorists that units of the 103^rd Brigade clashed with Tuesday were followers of the siblings Omarkhayam and Abdullah Maute, founders of the Maute terror group that laid siege in more than a dozen Marawi City barangays from May 23 to October 16, 2017.