Soldier, four terrorists dead in Lanao del Sur hostilities

MARAWI CITY --- A soldier and four members of the Dawlah Islamiya were killed in a spate of clashes Monday in secluded areas in Maguing, Lanao del Sur.

Soldiers under the Army’s 103^rd Infantry Brigade have seized two .50 caliber machineguns, a .30 caliber machinegun, an M16 rifle, an M14 rifle, an AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle and assorted ammunition scattered in the scenes of the encounters, left by the terrorists as they fled in haste.

The anti-terror maneuver was launched after residents reported to Army units in the province sightings in isolated areas in Maguing of terrorists, among them former followers of the slain siblings Omarkhayam and Abdullah Maute, founders of the Maute terror group.

Army and police officials in Lanao del Sur told reporters Tuesday guns have been silent since late Monday but soldiers remained in Barangay Ilalag in Maguing, where fighting was heaviest, to prevent the Dawlah Islamiya members from coming back.

Brig. Gen. Jose Maria Cuerpo II, commander of the 103^rd Infantry Brigade, said Tuesday it was the “patriotic residents” of Maguing who provided them information on the exact location of Dawlah Islamiya terrorists in the municipality.

Local sources said seven terrorists were wounded in the gunfights, seen by villagers being carried away from the scene by their fleeing companions.

Their positions were first bombed by fixed wing aircrafts and pounded with artillery before soldiers broke through their encampments, killing four in the ensuing encounter.

Members of different municipal peace and order councils in Lanao del Sur told reporters Monday they are certain that more than four terrorists were killed in the gunfights.

The Dawlah Islamiya and ally Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters operating in central Mindanao’s adjoining Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato provinces, are operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Dawlah Islamiya forces in Lanao del Sur were tagged in the recent bombing of a power transmission pylon in the border of Bubong and Maguing towns that caused massive outage in a number of towns in first district of the province.

Local officials and the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police agreed late Monday to cooperate in working out, along with the 103^rd Infantry Brigade, a local ceasefire throughout Maguing to deescalate the tension now gripping the local communities from escalating.

Mayor Fahad Molok confirmed the peace initiative of their local government unit via a written statement released at about midnight Monday.