4 killed as soldiers clash with BIFF gunmen in BARMM town

COTABATO CITY — At least four armed men were killed during air and artillery attacks beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday in Tugunan town in the Bangsamoro region’s Special Geographic Area.

Tugunan Mayor Abdullah Abas said the slain armed men were linked to kidnapping, carnapping and murder.

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He added that among the armed men that the military pursued were Moro extremists who have already surrendered to the government “but returned to being lawless elements.”

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The surgical operation was specifically after Daureen Manampan, alias “Marines,” and a certain Commander “Zorin” who are members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

Abas said military ground forces swooped down on the suspected lair of BIFF Bungos faction. Apart from the four slain, several others were wounded but carried by fleeing extremists, Abas said.

The ongoing military surgical operations against Moro extremists in the SGA have displaced thousands of civilians, the region’s disaster office reported on Saturday, Sept. 19.

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Muhammad Farshieh Abutazil, head of the BARMM Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence (BARMM-READi), said Saturday that the skirmishes affected the villages of Balong, Macabual and Manaulanan, all in the town of Tugunan, SGA, displacing a total of 1,345 families or 6,730 individuals.

This after combined elements of the Army’s 40th, 99th, 92nd Infantry Battalions launched ground and air offensives against the BIFF.

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Personnel from the Ministry of Social Services and Development and Ministry of Health were sent to attend to the emergency needs of the affected families.

Abas said it was not related to the recent Bangsamoro parliamentary elections but to the lawlessness by BIFF men. INQ