The clash erupted just two hours after President Arroyo vowed, during a tour of Camp Abubakar in Matanog, Maguindanao, to continue her administration’s crackdown on local and foreign terrorists holding out in isolated spots in the South.
Ben Carandang, spokesman for Datu Piang Mayor Shamer Uy, said the hostilities in Barangay Pandi, a secluded village in the municipality, erupted when local paramilitary forces intercepted some 50 renegade secessionist rebels accompanied by men suspected by local residents to be JI operatives.
According to information provided by villagers, some of the gunmen spoke to each other in a foreign language, suggesting they were not from the area.
Carandang said their town mayor had enlisted the help of village officials and religious leaders in Barangay Pandi in determining the exact identities of the suspected foreigners.
Residents confirmed through text messages that two of the foreigners were killed in the ensuing firefights.
More civilian volunteers and members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) were deployed to strategic spots in Barangay Pandi to pursue the gunmen, last seen fleeing into a nearby marshland carrying their dead and wounded companions.
Pandi barangay officials said their village militia was first informed of the presence of the suspected JI operatives and disgruntled rebels by members of the local religious community.
The CAFGUs and civilian volunteers managed to block the path of the gunmen, who immediately opened fire, provoking a gun battle.
Members of the Maguindanao provincial police said they are now validating reports that one of the gunmen was renegade Moro Islamic Liberation Front commander Ustadz Wahid Tundok, whose group was allegedly responsible for the Jan. 10 attack on a roadside Army detachment in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, which left seven soldiers dead.