The firefight erupted after armed men believed to be members of the Pentagon kidnap gang attacked a detachment of the 2nd Special Forces Battalion in Barangay Masulot in Sultan sa Barongis in apparent retaliation for the death of one of their leaders, Commander Tawasil who was gunned down Tuesday in nearby Columbio town in Sultan Kudarat province.
Members of the Muslim religious community in Sultan sa Barongis confirmed that three of the bandits, identified only as Maslamama, Sindatuk and Tingkag, were slain in the running gunbattle.
Villagers also reported that they saw the retreating bandits carry their wounded comrades.
Brig. Gen. Roy Kyamko, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division (ID), said the gunmen initially surrounded the military outpost in Masulot and opened fire with assault rifles and rocket launchers.
No casualties were reported on the government side.
Kyamko said all troops securing vital installations in the vicinity of the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Marsh at the boundaries of Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato have been placed on red alert against further retaliations by the Pentagon.
Tawasil, a foreign-trained explosives expert, was shot dead in a brief shootout with soldiers in Columbio town.
Tawasil and his band were reportedly on their way to Tacurong City to collect protection money from local traders when they encountered elements of the Army’s 47th Infantry Battalion, an anti-kidnapping unit of the 6th ID.
One of the suspects identified as Kapat Diangala was captured and placed under tactical interrogation at Army headquarters.
Diangala allegedly confessed to the Pentagon’s plan to carry out bomb attacks in business centers in Central Mindanao to force local traders to pay protection money to his group.
Soldiers retrieved at the fight scene two rocket launchers, four live B-40 rockets, two-way radios, a Garand rifle, assorted ammunition and improved bombs made of incendiary chemicals attached to fragmentation grenades left behind by the fleeing bandits.
Elements of the 5th ID have reportedly killed more than one dozen Pentagon leaders and arrested five others in a continuing operation launched last October.
The bandit gang had held four Chinese earlier this year, two of whom were killed in a crossfire during a rescue operation, and still hold captive an Italian priest. –John Unson