2 Maute terrorists killed in Lanao del Sur
A leader of a 20-member band of Maute terrorists holding out in an abandoned building in Bangolo in Marawi City. File photo
LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines — Two Maute terrorists were killed while four soldiers were injured in a two hour gunfight in Marantao town near Marawi City on Tuesday morning.
Chief Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac, director of the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said on Monday that terrorists attacked an Army detachment in the town proper of Marantao in Lanao del Sur, provoking a gunfight with soldiers and policemen there.
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Responding personnel of the provincial police office in Marawi City had to disembark from their vehicles and proceed on foot to the detachment that came under fire due to the presence of gunmen along the highway.
The exchanges of gunfire triggered panic among Maranaos residing in the town proper of Marantao, only 12.8 kilometers away from Marawi City.
Members of the Marantao municipal police reported that four soldiers were injured when terrorists shot the detachment with assault rifles and 40 millimeter grenade projectiles.
Local police investigators said in a report to Sindac that two Maute gunmen were killed in the ensuing encounter.
Community elders identified the slain terrorists as Ekram and Agakhan, both from Marawi City.
“The area that the marauding gunmen harassed was cleared from enemies at about 9:30 a.m. Monday,” Sindac said.
Investigators said the terrorists who fired at the Army detachment retreated to a nearby hinterland carrying their dead and wounded companions.
The attack jibed with the first day of classes in the Mindanao State University (MSU) in Marawi City.
The university failed to open last June as a consequence of the trouble there that combined Maute terrorists and Abu Sayyaf bandits instigated.
The conflict in Marawi City started on May 23 when terrorists laid siege to strategic areas there, sparking hostilities that have since dragged on.
Captain Jo-ann Petinglay, a senior information staff of the military-led Task Force Marawi, told reporters the opening of classes at MSU, the largest in Mindanao proceeded as scheduled despite the incident in Marantao.
“There is no truth to stories and text messages that spread saying the incident caused a security lockdown in Marawi City,” Petinglay said.
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