Soldier hurt in BIFF ambush in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO – Moro bandits wounded a soldier in an ambush while communist rebels abducted a barangay chairman in separate incidents in central Mindanao on Sunday.Senior Superintendent Agustin Tello, director of the Maguindanao provincial police, identified the injured soldier as Private 1stClass Butch Albarico of the Army’s 40thInfantry Battalion.Albarico, who sustained bullet wounds in the upper torso, is now confined in a government hospital in nearby Shariff Aguak town, also in Maguindanao.Tello said Albarico and companions were patrolling somewhere in Barangay Ganta in Saidona Mustapha town in the second district of Maguindanao when members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters attacked them from two directions. They were ambushed while conducting a community patrol in Barangay Ganta to secure villages there on request of local officials, Tello told reporters.He said the incident caused panic among villagers residing near the scene of the ambush.Although outnumbered, the soldiers returned fire, preventing their attackers from closing in.The BIFF gunmen scampered away when responding soldiers from nearby roadside Army detachments arrived to help drive them away.Barangay folk have confirmed that three fanatical BIFF bandits, initially identified only as Ahmed, Butukan and Sanguid, were wounded in the ensuing firefight.There is heavy BIFF presence in Shariff Saidona and in Maguindanao’s nearby Mamasapano, Salibo, and Datu Saudi towns.The apparently misguided extremist group boasts of loyalty to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and is using the black ISIS flag as its revolutionary banner.It has also been coddling foreign terrorists who are experts in fabrication and handling of improvised explosive devices.