2 killed in Maguindanao over suspected clan war

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The military deployed a peacekeeping contingent in Sultan sa Barongis, Maguindanao after Wednesday’s fatal ambush of a barangay official and a ranking commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) by a rival rebel group.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said Saddam Mohammad, a barangay chairman in Sultan sa Barongis, and his father, Commander Batuh, were riding motorcycles on their way to the town center from their farm when gunmen, positioned at one side of the road, shot them with assault rifles.

The victims both died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds.

Hermoso said the ambushers were led by another MILF commander, Kagui Said, whose family is locked in a long-time rido (clan war) with the Mohammads.

“These two groups had figured in several encounters in the past,” Hermoso said. 

He said combatants of the Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion are now guarding strategic areas in Sultan sa Barongis to prevent any escalation of the hostilities between the two families.

Local officials have sent emissaries to elders of the Mohammad family to convince them to refrain from retaliating.

Hermoso said the 33rd IB’s commander, Lt. Col. Markton Abo, has enlisted the help of the joint government-MILF ceasefire committee to help resolve the conflict amicably.