BIFF members attack Army detachments

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Marauding members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) attacked Tuesday night Army detachments in Barangays Magaslong and Buayan in Datu Piang town, sending villagers running for their lives.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the simultaneous attacks on the roadside detachments in the two barangays were apparently in retaliation for the deaths of four bandits soldiers had killed in an encounter four days earlier at the border of Maguindanao’s Datu Piang and Sharif Saidona towns.

Hermoso said BIFF bandits crawled near the Army detachments in Barangays Magaslong and Buayan and fired assault rifles and anti-tank rockets on bunkers protecting the soldiers.

“They immediately retreated to different directions when the soldiers returned fire,” Hermoso said.

Hermoso said the same group repeatedly harassed last week the combatants of the 45th Infantry Battalion and the 6th ID’s 61st and 62nd Reconnaissance Companies guarding a former BIFF camp in nearby Barangay Ganta.

Barangay Ganta is located at the swampy boundary of Datu Piang and Sharif Saidona, both in the second district of Maguindanao.

The BIFF attacks in Barangays Magaslong and Buayan forced dozens of families to evacuate to the town proper of Datu Piang.

“It’s the lives of the civilians that are becoming more and more miserable because of these activities by the BIFF. They are scaring civilians with what they are doing,” Hermoso said.