3 BIFF leaders die in fresh Maguindanao clashes

CAMP SIONGCO,Maguindanao--- Three commanders of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, one of them wanted for the brutal January 25 killing of 10 police commandos in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao, were killed Sunday by pursuing soldiers, local officials said.Four Army combatants, one of them a driver of a military ambulance, were also reportedly killed while six others were wounded in the ensuing firefights.The latest BIFF-military hostilities in Maguindanao first erupted in Barangay Elian in Datu Saudi town, located in the second district of Maguindanao, when bandits opened fire on soldiers verifying the reported presence of armed men in the area.The encounters intensified when another group of BIFF bandits fired at an Army ambulance carrying soldiers wounded in the firefights in Barangay Elian, while en route to the Camp Siongco Hospital in Datu Odin Sinsuat town, also in Maguindanao.Military sources and members of the inter-agency municipal peace and order councils in Maguindanao’s adjoining Mamasapano, Datu Piang, Sharif Saidona and Datu Saudi towns, said the hostilities spilled over to Barangay Malangog in Datu Unsay, where soldiers had gunned down the three BIFF leaders one after another.Army officials and local executives identified the slain BIFF commanders as Yusof Abesalih, most known as Bisaya,” and siblings Norodin and Salahudin Indong.The Indongs are brothers of a ranking BIFF leader, Imam Karialan, who helped the radical jihadist Ameril Ombra Kato establish the group in June 2010.Two key local officials, who both requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, had said Bisaya led the group that killed 10 Special Action Force commandos that raided last January 25 the hideout of Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan.The BIFF’s spokesman, Abu Misry Mama, had confirmed two days after the incident that their forces had indeed killed ten SAF operatives while maneuvering out of Barangay Pidsandawan in Mamasapano, after having killed Marwan there in a dawn raid on January 25.Mama said the BIFF members even took all the assault rifles of the ten policemen as they moved out from the scene after sensing that responding barangay officials and government forces were closing in.Captain Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division, said bandits and soldiers continued trading shots until 7and00 p.m. Sunday.Local officials said seven BIFF bandits were wounded in the firefights.Five of the wounded bandits were initially identified as Zamrud, Omar, Maniri, Beduh, and Elias, all adolescents.They were seen by barangay folks being carried away from the scene by companions.