By: Rahel U
Bangsamoro Islamic
Freedom Fighters (BIFF) rebels tried to
raid army outposts in the strife-torn south Monday, leaving one dead and one
wounded soldier.
However, Colonel Dickson Hermoso,
who is the spokesman of the military unit in the area said that three of the members of BIFF rebels were also killed after the attack
on Mindanao island.
The army deployed helicopter
gunships to send the rebels run away following the fearless midnight assault,
said by another military officer. Aside from the dead soldier, there are two more
soldiers and an unknown civilian were wounded in the combat.
The attack was expected by the military after the
BIFF instigated the local public against the military, accusing the militaries
of abducting a Muslim father and son. Military believed BIFF is baseless with
their accusations as they are only using radio and the social media for its information.
BIFF spokesman Abu Misry Mama confirmed
the attack was a revenge for the alleged kidnapping on July 3.
The BIFF which is believed to have a hundred
members separated from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), in 2008 but
the 10,000-strong MILF has entered into a truce and peace talks with the
government for the creation of an autonomous region for Muslim-dominated areas
in the southern part of Mindanao.
The BIFF has rejected the
negotiations and demands a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines
from the government.
In January, the military launched an offensive attack on
BIFF strongholds, invading their bases and killing at least 53 of their
fighters.
Since 1970, several Muslim armed groups,
including the MILF have participated in a rebellion in the southern Philippines
because they aimed autonomy for the country's Muslim minority in Mindanao, which
is their ancestral homeland. There are about 150,000 people are estimated to
have been killed in the rebel-government conflict.
Source: yahoonews
Photo: credit to the owner
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