Philippine soldiers retake town

Troops backed by armoured vehicles reclaim Datu Paglas after standoff with militants

MANILA: Philippine soldiers backed by armoured vehicles have retaken a southern town held for 12 hours by pro-Islamic State militants, the army said, with four rebels killed in urban clashes reminiscent of a fivemonth siege last year.

The clashes followed warnings by President Rodrigo Duterte that remnants of pro-IS militant groups had been recruiting and still planning attacks on several southern cities to set up an independent and separate Islamic state.

Troops pursued militants from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) group, who fled to the hills after trying to occupy a marshland town, Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Cabunoc, an army battalion commander, said in a statement.

The military will continue to “disrupt the BIFF’s plan to sow terror in communities” in the troubled south, Cabunoc said yesterday.

There was no immediate comment from the militants’ group.

Hundreds of residents have remained in shelter areas and not been allowed to return home after troops retrieved improvised explosive devices and other booby traps in the town of Datu Paglas.

Cabunoc said four militants were killed and two others were wounded.

A soldier and a local militia official were also wounded.

The army said the Datu Paglas attack could be a test case, since the area was near the militants’ marshland base.

Since March, the military has shifted its combat operations from Marawi, a battered lakeside town in Mindanao embroiled in last year’s five-month conflict, to the island’s marshes where other pro-IS militants operate.

More than 40 BIFF militants have been killed in the last four months by troops in air and ground assaults the military described as pre-emptive moves to thwart militant attacks on cities.