Another 6th ID soldier killed in BIFF retaliatory attack
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 13:30 PM Mon Mar 4, 2019
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By:
John Unson
MAGUINDANAO --- Islamic militants killed another off-duty soldier Sunday, the fourth since Thursday.
The spokesman of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Abu Misry Mama, told reporters Monday morning that their “hitmen” were behind Sunday’s attack in Barangay Semba in Datu Odin Sinsuat that resulted in the death of Cpl. Sahelbasar Alaja.
Three unarmed soldiers were killed in separate attacks by BIFF militants in Cotabato City and in Datu Salibo town in Maguindanao just last Thursday.
Alaja belonged to a team from the 90th Infantry Battalion guarding the periphery of the Division Training School of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division not too distant from where he was attacked.
Alaja was walking along a highway near their detachment when pistol-wielding men blocked his path and opened fire.
He was declared dead on arrival by attending physicians in a hospital where he was rushed by responding barangay officials and police personnel for treatment.
“These retaliations will continue,” Misry said.
He said the killings were perpetrated by the BIFF to avenge the deaths of members in military operations in Maguindanao province last week.
The BIFF, operating in the fashion of the Islamic State, is not covered by the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, whose leader, Hadji Murad Ebrahim, is now an appointed chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The first fatality in the series of BIFF attacks that started last week was Staff Sergeant Lardera Verande.
Verande, who was a member of an intelligence unit under 6th ID, was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen while along a stretch of the Sinsuat Avenue in Cotabato City on Thursday morning.
The incident preceded the fatal ambush of Privates Junard Estribor and Nelier John Pinto the same day in Barangay Sambulawan in Datu Salibo town in the second district of Maguindanao.
The off-duty Estribor and Pinto, who both belonged to the 57th Infantry Battalion of 6th ID, were on board a red car en route to Cotabato City when BIFF gunmen, positioned along the highway, opened fire with assault rifles, killing them both on the spot.
Their companion, Private Muqtadir Salmpuna, who was wounded in the ambush, is now recuperating in a hospital.