BIFF bandits ambush oil tanker, Army detachment in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) ambushed a 10-wheeler lorry carrying 50,000 liters of petroleum fuel and harassed Army detachments in separate attacks in the province Tuesday.

The latest BIFF rampage came a day after militiamen killed a ranking henchman of BIFF founder Ameril Omrah Kato in an encounter in North Cotabato.

The tanker, which was enroute to Cotabato City from South Cotabato, was ambushed in Barangay Bagan, Guindulungan.

Local officials said the ambush was an apparent retaliation for the group’s losses in a series of encounters Monday with armed villagers and government forces in the neighboring Pikit and Midsayap municipalities in North Cotabato.

Army officials declined to provide information, meantime, on the plight of the lorry's driver and a helper.

The incident in Guindulungan prompted the Army’s 6th Infantry Division to close for several hours the portion of the Cotabato-Gen. Santos Highway traversing the municipality.

Just as responding soldiers began clearing the surroundings of the ambush scene, another group of bandits raided a roadside detachment of the Army’s 45th Infantry Battalion in Datu Piang town.

Another group also opened fire on houses of farmers in Maitum-a-ig area at the border of Maguindanao’s adjoining Datu Saudi and Datu Unsay towns, provoking hostilities with armed villagers and soldiers positioned in detachments nearby.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said that the Cotabato-Gen.Santos Highway had to be temporarily closed to traffic as BIFF bandits may attempt to abduct motorists and commuters to divert the attention of pursuing soldiers.

BIFF bandits on Monday killed a farmer during an attack in two villages in Midsayap, located in the first district of North Cotabato.

The incident preceded the encounter between patrolling militiamen and BIFF bandits, which resulted to the death of Ebrahim Talenxa, a known henchman of the Kato. Soldiers recovered beside his cadaver an M-14 assault rifle.

Hermoso said villagers reported seeing heavy stains of blood on the escape route of the bandits, last seen scampering towards the direction of Datu Piang, Maguindanao.

Kato, a cleric trained in Saudi Arabia, formed the BIFF in 2011 after he was booted out of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front a year before due to insubordination and other heinous offenses.