Nine MILF members killed in family feud

COTABATO CITY — Two heavily-armed groups, one identified with the Moro National Liberation Front and the other with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, clashed the other day in Maguindanao’s Datu Piang town, displacing some 400 families and forcing authorities to close for hours a national highway traversing the area.

Nine MNLF members were killed in the firefight, according to the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

The skirmishes in Barangay Kitango, Datu Piang, which lasted for six hours, worsened when the feuding gunmen opened fire on approaching soldiers dispatched to pacify them and secure the civilians trapped in the crossfire.

A soldier, initially identified only as Pfc. Anis of the 37th Infantry Battalion, was seriously wounded in the ensuing firefight, where the military used Bronco OV-10 bombers and MG-520 attack helicopters to pound the positions of the two groups just to prevent them from closing in on densely populated areas.

"Our soldiers were forced to engage them after being fired upon. Their mission there was just to act as peacekeepers to ensure the safety of civilians, but the armed groups opened fire first," said Major Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

Kitango’s village chief, Bai Sapiya Uy, said the trouble started when armed followers of Mamalaka Tamano of the MILF and his rival, Kayab Baguinda, chanced on each other at a secluded area in their barangay and traded shots.

Seven of the MNLF members killed in the hostilities were identified as relatives of Baguinda, sources from Datu Piang said.

"These two groups have long been squabbling for control of arable lands in the area," Uy said.

Local residents said both sides suffered fatalities, seen being carried away from the scene by the warring fighters as they fled hastily to escape from the military’s ground and air offensives.

Uy said Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan had earlier brokered a ceasefire for the two groups whose leaders also signed a covenant agreeing to have their differences resolved peacefully through dialogues.

Evacuees from villages surrounding the area where the two groups clashed are now confined in public school campuses in Kitango and nearby barangays.