6th ID appreciate LGUs for supporting anti-terror campaign
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 14:45 PM Mon Dec 9, 2019
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By:
John M. Unson
A mortar tube found in abandoned Dawlah Islamiya hideout. (6th ID handout photo)
MAGUINDANAO --- The Joint Task Force Central on Monday acknowledged the role of local officials and barangay leaders in the Army’s recent takeover of a dozen lairs of the Dawlah Islamiya in the province.
Major Gen. Diosdado Carreon of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division that controls the anti-terror task force said Monday the 6th ID is also grateful to the local government units that supported their security operations the past three weeks in Maguindanao’s Mamasapano, Shariff Saidona, Shariff Aguak and Datu Saudi towns.
Patterned from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the Dawlah Islamiya, also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, is tagged in all deadly bombings in central Mindanao in the past five years.
Units of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division have restored government control over Dawlah Islamiya hideouts in the four towns via tactical maneuvers that resulted in the deaths of three soldiers and seven terrorists, three of them relatives of a senior leader of the terror group, Ustadz Esmael Abdulmalik, most known as Abu Toraife.
Government forces have collected 34 powerful improvised explosive devices, some attached to booby traps, laid by Dawlah Islamiya members along trails cross-crossing their hideouts before escaping towards the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta.
Soldiers also found in the abandoned Dawlah Islamiya camps four M16 rifles, a .45 caliber pistol, a K2 rifle, two M14 rifles, two .50 caliber Barret sniping rifles, two M203 rifles, an M79 grenade launcher, a rocket launcher with a B-40 anti-tank projectile, a 60 millimeter mortar tube, a shotgun and a 9 millimeter Ingram machine pistol.
The clearing of the Dawlah Islamiya enclaves was launched in late November after local officials, traditional Moro leaders and moderate Islamic missionaries reported to 6th ID the terror group’s plot to bomb non-military targets to avenge the deaths of more than 30 members killed in military operations early this year.
“We are thankful to the Moro communities that supported our latest operations against these terrorists," Carreon said.