(UPDATE) Death toll in Maguindanao gun battle reaches 86

COTABATO, Philippines (Xinhua) - The death toll from the clashes between government forces and renegade Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM) fighters in Maguindanao rose to 86, a military official said tonight.

A report of Datu Piang and Shariff Saydona Mustapha municipal peace and order council confirmed 81 deaths from the BIFM fighters, said Dickson Hermoso, spokesman for the military's 6th Division.  

He said five people from the government side have been killed since the skirmishes broke out on Saturday.

"The government will help recover those wounded in the fighting. ..whether they are rebels or civilians,"the military official said.

Hermoso said the BIFM fighters retreated to the Liguasan marsh - which straddles the provinces of Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato - after government troops seized their strongholds last Saturday.

The fierce gun battle occurred last Saturday after the group of Ameril Umbra Kato launched attacks on state security forces, sparking heavy fighting that led to the fall of the two rebel strongholds.

Around 5,000 people have been displaced over the weekend's clashes.

The fighting has subsided, but the government forces are on alert to prevent rebels from staging more attacks, he said.

The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter (BIFF) is the original name of the group which was founded in 2010 by Kato, a former Moro Islamic Liberation Front leader. Its leadership later renamed it BIFM which has about 300 men.

Abu Misry, Kato's spokesman, denied reports about the number of their fatalities, adding their offensive against government troops will continue.

"We demand their pullout from Maguindanao," he told a local radio station.