Army: 2 Dawlah Islamiya members killed in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Soldiers shot dead two more members of the outlawed Dawlah Islamiya in a brief clash in Mamasapano town Saturday.

Patrolling personnel of the Army's 33rd Infantry Battalion were to inspect two men together on a motorcycle, one of them carrying an assault rifle, in Barangay Tuka in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao, but shot them instead when they opened fire, the Army said.

Col. Joel Mamon, acting commander of the Army’s 601st Brigade, said Sunday the two men died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds.

The Dawlah Islamiya, also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, uses the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as banner.

The group is blamed for all deadly bombings in central Mindanao in the past five years.

Barangay residenrs confirmed to reporters that the slain motorists belong to a BIFF group behind the murder of more than 20 off-duty soldiers in central Mindanao’s adjoining Maguindanao and North Cotabato provinces since 2016.

The duo was killed four days after members of the 33rd IB shot dead BIFF hitman Sainudin Nilong, tagged in the fatal ambush of Pfc Jerome Tahad in Radjah Buayan town in Maguindanao last week.

Tahad was returning to their command post from a six-hour quarantine checkpoint duty when Nilong and a companion, riding a motorcycle together, attacked him from behind, killing him on the spot.

They took with them Tahad's rifle.

Nilong and his companions attacked the soldiers dispatched three days later to check his reported presence in Barangay Tabungao in Radjah Buayan, sparking a 30-minute gunfight that resulted in his death.   

Major Gen. Diosdado Carreon, commander of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said he has ordered the 601st Brigade and all its units in the second district of Maguindanao and in Sultan Kudarat province to anticipate possible retaliations by the BIFF for the deaths of members in latest encounters with soldiers.