31 BIFF members killed in sporadic clashes in Maguindanao –military

Some 31 members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) were killed in six days of military operation in Maguindanao, an Army spokesman said Thursday.

"Members of the community reported to have seen the casualties," said Capt. Arvin John Encinas, spokesman of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, as he admitted that they were not able to recover the bodies of the slain terrorists.

Encinas said BIFF members are known to retrieve their dead so they can be burried within 24 hours in keeping with the Muslim tradition.

He said the operations against the BIFF, which were backed by air, artillery and armor assets, started last Saturday, resulting in sporadic clashes that lasted for days at the tri-boundary of Talayan, Guindulungan and Datu Piang towns.

"These assets have been very accurate and effective in hitting the identified location of target individuals and group of BIFF," Encinas said.

The group was said to be under Ismael Abubakar or Kumander Bungos, who is blamed for a number of atrocities in Central Mindanao since the BIFF was formed in 2010.

The BIFF is composed of around 300 men, mostly former members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

"These armed terrorist groups are resorting to roadside bombing to divert the attention of the AFP units against their beleaguered members in and around the Salibu-Pagatin-Mamasapano-Shariff Aguak box," he said.

Encinas said two other BIFF leaders were believed to be with Abubakar, identified as Ismael Abdulmalik alias Abu Toraype and Salahudin Hassan alias Orak.

Six Indonesian bomb experts are believed to be with the group, he said.

The fighting left 4,867 families or over 24,000 persons displaced, according to Myrna Jo Henry, information officer of the Humanitarian Emergency Action and Response Team of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. —KBK, GMA News