Army is ready for possible Dawlah Islamiya rampage

MAGUINDANAO ---Authorities are certain Dawlah Islamiya terror group leader Abu Toraife will avenge the death of his son and brother soldiers killed in a gunfight Tuesday.

Toraife’s son Ansari, brother Ahmad Abdulmalik, and aide, Johari Abdulatip, also known as Kedtung, were killed when an artillery round hit their makeshift shelter while exchanging shots with soldiers at noontime Tuesday in Barangay Pusaw in Shariff Saidona Mustapha, Maguindanao.

The Shariff Saidona Mustapha municipal police confirmed their deaths in a report dispatched Thursday to the Bangsamoro regional police office in Camp Pendatun in Parang, Maguindanao.

Major Gen. Diosdado Carreon of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division said Thursday they have deployed more intelligence agents in strategic spots in central Mindanao to help monitor possible retaliatory plots by the Dawlah Islamiya, also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

The group has a reputation for bombing non-military targets whenever members get killed in clashes with pursuing soldiers.

Units of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division comprising the anti-terror Joint Task Force Central, or JTFC, have restored government control over bastions of the Dawlah Islamiya in Shariff Saidona Mustapha’s adjoining Barangays Pusaw and Pamalian.

The lairs of the terror group in the two barangays fell after a series of clashes with soldiers that began on Sunday and waned on Wednesday when occupants scampered away after they ran out of ammunition.

Soldiers are now focused on collecting improvised explosive devices and booby traps rigged with explosives that Dawlah Islamiya members planted in the surroundings before they fled towards the nearby 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta.

Local officials said 13 Dawlah Islamiya terrorists have been killed in one encounter after another with JTFC operatives in Maguindanao’s Shariff Saidona Mustapha and Mamasapano towns in the past 17 days. []