Relief services for Tubaran evacuees on amid tight security

LANAO DEL SUR --- The police and military are guarding against possible retaliations by remnants of the Maute terror group for losses in encounters with soldiers in Tubaran town early this week.Lt. Gen. Arnel Dela Vega of the Western Mindanao Command said Thursday they have also been supporting the relief operations of the Lanao del Sur provincial government in evacuation sites where there are evacuees from Tubaran.Latest reports from the office of Lanao del Sur Gov. Soraya Bedjoria Alonto-Adiong indicated that more than 10,000 residents of Tubaran, scene of the June 17 deadly Maute-military clashes, are now in evacuation sites.Local officials in Lanao del Sur’s nearby Binidayan, Pagayawan, Marogong, Bayang, Ganassi and Calanogas towns gave sanctuary to some of the evacuees in their barangays.Alonto-Adiong said she is thankful to her constituent-mayors for helping the displaced Tubaran residents.Dela Vega said military units in Lanao del Sur arehelping personnel of the provincial government extend relief services to conflict-stricken Meranao people.He said the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao-Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team had also coordinated a relief mission in Lanao del Sur on Friday.The office of Alonto-Adiong has been distributing food supplies and other provisions to the affected villagers since late Sunday.Units of WestMinCom launched Sunday’s offensive in Tubaran against a group of Islamic State-inspired militants led by Abu Dar, whose name is Owaida Benito Marohombsar, after vigilant barangay officials reported his presence in a hinterland there.Six militants, including Abu Dar, were reportedly killed in the initial bombardment of their position with rockets fired from helicopter gunships and bombs dropped by fixed-wing aircrafts. It was from the peace-loving Meranao people in Tubaran that we learned of the convergence of terrorists in one spot there, enabling our units to strike them quickly. Thanks to these vigilant Meranao informants, Dela Vega said.Abu Dar assumed leadership of the Maute terror group, also known as the Dawlah Islamiya, after soldiers had killed its founding leaders, the brothers Omarkhayam and Abdullah Maute, in an encounter in Marawi City before dawn on October 16, 2017.The death of the Maute siblings and their cohort, the Basilan-born Isnilon Hapilon of the Abu Sayyaf, ended the five-month siege of Marawi City that the three of them instigated.The Maute and the Abu Sayyaf groups are both using the black Islamic State flag as revolutionary banner.The May 23 to October 16, 2017 conflict in Marawi City left more than a thousand people dead, among them soldiers and police personnel, displaced some 300,000 villagers and left dozens of historic, centuries-old Meranao enclaves there in ruins.Dela Vega said the WestMinCom appreciates the immediate action of the Lanao del Sur provincial government on the plight of villagers forced to leave their homes by Sunday’s hostilities in Tubaran.Maute gunmen are feared for their practice of using innocent villagers as human shields to forestall military pursuit maneuvers.Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen were also reported to have raped women they held captive and executed kidnapped men who refused to arm and help them fight advancing state security forces.Dela Vega said their intelligence units are helping the Lanao del Sur provincial police guard evacuation sites, where there are evacuees from Tubaran, from any intrusion by Maute stragglers.Maute terrorists are known for venting ire on non-military targets to get even with deaths of companions in clashes with state forces.