Gov’t troops join forces with MILF in fighting IS-inspired BIFF
DATU SALIBO – The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has teamed up with old foes behind a long-running Muslim insurgency as it looks to eject a breakaway gang of radical militants pledging loyalty to the Islamic State (IS) group.
As artillery shells and rockets pounded targets nearby, soldiers were seen mingling freely with several hundred Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters who have joined assaults on the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in the restive southern island Mindanao. The BIFF is a breakaway group of the MILF.
At least 10 BIFF gunmen were reportedly killed in the series of airstrikes launched by the AFP Joint Task Force Central in Maguindanao last Sunday.
“The airstrikes were employed by our operating troops with the end state of destroying the strongholds of terrorists, thus, depriving them of means to support their nefarious ploys, which are not limited to their IED-making activities and training of recruits,” Major General Arnel dela Vega, commander of the the AFP Joint Task Force Central, said.
Troops from the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion, reinforced by fighters from the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces-MILF (BIAF-MILF), engaged the Daesh-inspired BIFF gunmen in Barangay Tee, Datu Salibo, Maguindanao, last September 3.
Two BIAF-MILF members were also killed in the clashes. They were identified as Butukan Bungayen alias Mantukan Bungayen, and Jojo Sampayan.
The joint operation is the latest tactic by the Philippine government to try to stamp out pro-IS fighters, after months of battling a separate faction of militants who have besieged the city of Marawi, about 100 kilometers to the north.
Dela Vega said militant groups had taken the opportunity “to build up their forces” while government troops were engaged in the Marawi conflict.
The alliance with MILF included “providing them with indirect fire support and even air support and other expertise,” he told AFP, adding that the awkwardness of fighting alongside former long-time foes had evaporated.
AFP Western Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Carlito G. Galvez Jr., said the combat operations are necessary measures taken by the MILF members against terror groups operating in Maguindanao.
“We laud the liberation front’s leadership for supporting the government’s drive for peace to thrive in Mindanao against terrorism, criminalities, and drugs,” Galvez said.
“We hope this call for peace would resonate and encourage more groups, organizations, and Filipinos to join the government in combating terrorism, and illegal drugs,” Galvez said.
A rebellion by the 10,000-strong MILF has claimed more than 100,000 lives, by government estimates. The group signed a peace treaty in 2014 but will not disarm before the government passes a proposed law granting autonomy to the Muslim regions of the mainly Catholic nation.
But small factions continue to fight, as frustration builds over the bill, which has stalled in Congress.
The military is feeding intelligence to the MILF in the fight against about 60 militants, led by Esmael Abdulmalik alias Abu Turaifi, a former MILF guerrilla leader, according to Dela Vega.
But he said troop units would not merge with the MILF fighting groups because they had “different operational tactics and procedures” in the conflict, which began in early August on wild marshlands some 800 kilometers south of Manila.
“By and large the result has been substantially in our favor,” Dela Vega said.