GENERAL SANTOS CITY - Thursday night's killing of a top official of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and his aide might have been triggered by "internal conflict" in the ranks of the rebel group, military and local officials claimed.
Col. Delfin Lorenzana, commander of the Army's 601st Infantry Brigade, said slain MILF leader Ustadz Hussein Siddik might be a casualty of a power struggle within the local MILF leadership.
Siddik was a member of the MILF political affairs committee and chairman of the Rajah Buayan Revolutionary Committee, the separatist Moro group's local civilian arm.
Siddik and his driver-bodyguard, Abel Alaba, were on board a red Hyundai XL sedan when they were ambushed along Aparente street in Purok Malakas, Barangay San Isidro here at about 6:45 p.m. Thursday.
The incident happened in a dimly-lit portion of the street about 50 meters away from Sitio Darusalam, a Muslim community.
Witnesses said the ambushers, numbering from three to five, were armed with Armalite rifles and caliber .45 pistols. They escaped aboard an L-300 van.
"There is a conflict within the MILF local leadership and it is a big possibility that this killing might be related to it," Lorenzana said.
Early this year, Siddik was wounded in an alleged shootout with MILF men in Polomolok, South Cotabato.
Siddik, as protégé of MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar, and Commander Nadsid Faisal of the MILF's 204th Brigade, a close ally of military affairs chairman Al Haj Murad, were reportedly not on good terms.
T'boli Mayor Dad Tuan corroborated the military's suspicions, adding though that these can only be confirmed through a deeper probe on the incident.
Tuan said the ambush could have been carried out, too, by a third party or an anti-Moro vigilante group.
"But this matter should be closely watched since the growing animosity between Christians and Muslims could further flare up," Tuan said.
But the MILF leadership, through Eid Kabalu of the technical committee, belied the military's suspicions.
"We insist on an investigation first to avoid careless pronouncements or declarations on the matter. So let us all wait for the outcome of the investigation," said Kabalu, who earlier disclosed that the MILF will conduct its own inquiry.