GOVERNMENT TROOPS PREVENT NEW CRISIS

About 300 members of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters storm Malagakit in North Cotabato, take hostages as shield to cover their retreat

Muslim rebels withdrew from a southern Philippine village Wednesday after security forces moved rapidly to prevent another crisis amid a monthlong militant siege in Marawi City.

About 300 gunmen stormed the village of Malagakit in Pigcawayan, North Cotabato province at dawn Wednesday and engaged government forces in a firefight.

There have been no reports of casualties and hundreds of villages fled to safety, but military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said the gunmen took an unspecified number of civilians to cover their retreat.

Police said the attackers belonged to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, whose spokesman Abu Misry Mamah acknowledged in a radio interview that his group staged the attack but said they did not intend to take hostages.

The gunmen occupied a grade school building as they clashed with government forces, said Chief Inspector Realan Mamon, the police chief of Pigcawayan. The school was closed at the time of the attack.

“They’ve withdrawn from the area, they’re no longer there. The school area is safe,” Padilla told a news conference in Manila, adding troops were pursuing the attackers.

The rebels, hiding in a marsh, broke off from the largest Muslim rebel group several years ago.

Padilla said it was possible the attack was intended to disrupt an ongoing military offensive against the Maute Group, a separate group of militants, who laid siege May 23 to Marawi City in Lanao del Sur province, about 55 kilometers away.

“If this is a diversionary move, it’s not the first by these BIFF gunmen,” Padilla said. “They have tried to attack more than once and all have been thwarted.”

Last month, about 500 militants seized Marawi following a government raid that failed to capture top militant suspect Isnilon Hapilon. Philippine troops, backed by airstrikes and artillery, have been fighting street battles to wrest back control of the city..

The U.S. military in recent weeks deployed a P3 Orion aircraft to provide surveillance and intelligence to troops battling more than 100 gunmen holding an unspecified number of hostages in Marawi.

President Rodrigo Duterte, despite having an antagonistic stance toward Washington, has acknowledged the U.S. assistance is helping save lives.

Duterte declared martial law in the entire Mindanao region to deal with the Marawi crisis.