2 die, 3 hurt in BIFF attacks in Maguindanao

COTABATO CITY- Two Moro villagers were killed while three others were wounded as bandits attacked military positions before dawn Friday at the border of Central Mindanao's North Cotabato and Maguindanao provinces. The fatalities, Rayhana Acmad and Kantoh Saluidasan, and their three wounded companions were fleeing from the scene of the encounter on board a boat which members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) twice shot with B-40 anti-tank rockets.The hostilities first erupted at a riverside farming enclave in Barangay Kabasalan in Pikit town in North Cotabato, where BIFF bandits attacked soldiers guarding a strategic spot, provoking a running firefight.Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division, said the BIFF incursion at Barangay Kabasalan forced Moro villagers to evacuate to safer areas for fear of getting trapped in the crossfire.The BIFF bandits scampered away when responding soldiers from nearby barangays fired 81 millimeter mortars to prevent them from getting through the center of Barangay Kabasalan.