Mindanao Armed Conflict

COTABATO CITY --- Guns are silent in troubled barangays in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town since Wednesday but evacuees are reluctant to return without a truce between the two groups whose gunfights sent them running for their lives.

Local officials and barangay leaders told reporters Thursday no fewer than 2,000 villagers got displaced by the hostilities in Barangays Elian and Dapiawan in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur, some of them homeless now after one of the two feudal groups set their houses on fire on Tuesday night.

COTABATO CITY - Soldiers shot and wounded in an operation Sunday in nearby South Upi, Maguindanao del Sur a gunman wanted for criminal cases and harboring cattle thieves and extortionists.

The Teduray tribesman Romeo Kafitan, immediately yielded, both hands raised, when he sensed that his hideout in the secluded Sitio Kinemkem in Barangay Romongaob had been surrounded by personnel of the 57^th Infantry Battalion, dispatched to check his reported presence in the area.

DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Maguindanao Norte – Police are hunting down gunmen believed to be behind the twin but separate ambush incidents Monday in Maguindanao del Sur that left a village treasurer and a job order worker killed.

Mayor Reynalbert Insular of South Upi, Maguindanao del Sur, said he has already directed the municipal police office personnel to work with the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion in hunting down the ambushers of Robis Batitao, an LGU job order worker.

CAMP SK PENDATUN, Maguindanao Norte  – Police authorities in Lanao del Sur on Sunday killed three armed men and arrested seven others during pre-dawn law enforcement operation in the town of Bubong.

COTABATO CITY - Four were killed while four others were hurt in separate clashes Wednesday in Maguindanao del Sur between rival groups led by commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The first to perish in the two incidents is villager Baguer Laguiam, who was caught in the crossfire between rival MILF forces that figured in a gunfight in a secluded barangay in Radjah Buayan, Maguindanao del Sur.

UMAKYAT pa sa tatlo ang nasawi kabilang ang dalawang mga batang babae sa ambush sa Sitio Bagurot, Barangay Tuayan Mother, Datu Hoffer, Maguindanao Del Sur pasado alas 7:00 ng gabi nitong Lunes.

Sa panayam ng DXMS Radyo Bida kay Datu Hoffer town chief Police Captain Ramillo Serame, sinabi nito na ang mga nasawi sa pananambang ay ang padre de pamilya na si Sadam Mamasainged at ang anak nitong sina Hanafia na tatlong taong gulang pa lamang at ang walong buwang sanggol na si Hamdi.

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao Norte  – Military authorities here have claimed that it foiled bombing plots by Dawlah Islamiyah-Hassan Group members with the recovery of eight improvised explosive devices and death of five terrorist groups in Maguindanao del Sur.

The three-day military air and ground assaults that included the use of 155-mm Autonomous Truck Mounted Howitzers Systems (ATMOS) of the Army was aimed at pursuing DI group of about 30 massing in the borders of Pagalungan and Datu Montawal towns in Maguindanao del Sur.

KIDAPAWAN CITY - Two rival Moro groups squabbling for control of a barangay in Pagalungan, Maguindanao del Sur clashed again Sunday, sending villagers running for their lives.

Three were reported killed while another was wounded in the latest encounter between the clan of Datu Kente Matalam, incumbent chairman of Kilangan in Pagalungan, and their enemies led by Nayang Teman.

Both groups are identified with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

CARMEN, North Cotabato – Three suspected Dawlah Islamiya terrorists were killed and four others were injured during the military’s focus operation in the borders of Maguindanao del Sur and Cotabato province, the Army here said.

Brig. Gen. Donald Gumiran, commander of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade, said government forces were running after the group of Almoben Sibud of the IS inspired terror group who has about 30 armed followers.

“Sibud is the leader of the group and believed to be behind bombings in our AOR,” Gumiran said.

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao del Norte - Three New People’s Army guerillas and a military officer were wounded in a clash in Kiamba town in nearby Sarangani over the weekend. 

Personnel of the Army’s 38^th Infantry Battalion were patrolling in Barangay Gasi in Kiamba when a group of NPAs attacked them from two directions, provoking a gunfight that lasted for about 30 minutes.