Military targeting BIFF hitmen on motorcycles

COTABATO CITY --- The military is targeting to neutralize a group of Islamic State-inspired hitmen responsible for the never ending killings of off-duty soldiers in the city and nearby towns.

Among the latest fatalities in the continuing attacks on unsuspecting unarmed soldiers is Corporal Pacifico Obillo of the 5^th Special Forces Battalion based in the city.

Major Gen. Diosdado Carreon, commander of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division, said Friday intelligence units of 6^th ID and the Bangsamoro regional police are now helping identify and locate the culprits.

Obillo was riding a motorcycle when he was shot early this week by gunmen trailing behind while motoring through a residential area here.

Army and police intelligence officials are certain members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters were responsible for the atrocity.

The BIFF operates in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

A member of the Army’s 33^rd Infantry Battalion was also shot and wounded in a similar attack at the border of Cotabato City and Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao four days before.

More than 30 non-uniformed unarmed soldiers were killed here and in central Mindanao’s adjoining Maguindanao and North Cotabato provinces by motorcycle-riding BIFF members in attacks that began in late 2017.

Brig. Gen. Marni Marcos, director of the Regional Police Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Friday he has directed all municipal police chiefs in Maguindanao to help the 6^th ID’s intelligence units identify and locate the BIFF gunmen behind the killings.