Army shells Dawlah Islamiya lairs in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO ---- Three more members of the Dawlah Islamiya terror group were reported killed as the Army bombarded with artillery its remaining hideouts in Shariff Saidona Mustapha on Thursday.

Local officials and barangay leaders said the offensive, the second since last week, forced Dawlah Islamiya gunmen to scamper further into the Liguasan Delta carrying four wounded companions, two of them nephews of the wanted terrorist Abu Toraife.

Sources from the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said there are persistent reports purporting that three Dawlah Islamiya terrorists, identified only as Buhari, Samrudin and Mursid, were killed in the cannon shelling but could not confirm without actual body count.

Quoting beleaguered villagers fleeing from scene, barangay leaders said the terrorists in Barangay Dasawao in Shariff Saidona Mustapha immediately scampered away as 105 Howitzer cannon projectiles fired from Army camps nearby started to fall in the surroundings.

Members of the municipal peace and order councils in Maguindanao’s adjoining Shariff Saidona Mustapha, Datu Salibo, Mamasapano and Datu Piang towns told reporters Friday they are apprehensive of retaliations by the Dawlah Islamiya for its losses in the Army’s artillery assault.

The group has a reputation for bombing non-military targets and attacking off-duty soldiers to avenge the death of members in encounters with pursuing units of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division based in Maguindanao province.

The Dawlah Islamiya is also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

The terror bloc, operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is tagged as behind all deadly bombings in central Mindanao in recent years.

Two Dawlah Islamiya terrorist and a serviceman of the Army’s 33^rd Infantry Battalion were killed in a spate of encounters in Barangay Tukanalipao in Masamapano, Maguindanao early this week.