Eight IS terrorists killed, four soldiers wounded in Mindanao firefight
Encounter during operation to catch terrorists linked to December's deadly bombing.
LANAO DEL SUR: Eight members of a local Islamic State (IS) chapter were reportedly killed and four soldiers wounded in a firefight in Lanao del Sur on Thursday (Jan. 25) during an operation to pursue terrorists linked to last December’s deadly bombing in the southern Philippine province.
The two-hour gunfight started at around 4:45pm in the hinterland village of Tapurog in Piagapo municipality, MindaNews reported an Army official as saying.
Brig. Gen. Yegor Rey Baroquillo Jr., the commander of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade, said the encounter took place during an operation by the 7th Company of the Army’s 3rd Scout Ranger Battalion.
The operation was to hunt down the suspects of the bombing by the pro-IS Maute Group that killed four Catholic mass attendees and wounded several others at Mindanao State University in Lanao del Sur’s provincial capital city of Marawi on Dec. 3, 2023.
“The troops also recovered eight assorted high-powered firearms,” Baroquillo was quoted as saying.
No airstrike was carried out during the military operation while the wounded soldiers were brought to a nearby hospital, he said, adding no residents were evacuated from the encounter site, MindaNews reported further.
He said the towns of Pantao Ragat, Poona Piagapo and Munai in Lanao del Norte province, which are close to Lanao del Sur, are temporarily under the 103rd Infantry Brigade’s operational control until March this year due to the sustained military operations, Baroquillo earlier reportedly said.
Brig. Gen. Anthon Abrina, the commander of the Army’s 2nd Mechanised Infantry, reportedly said in a phone interview that they were on heightened red-alert status following Thursday’s encounter.
Abrina said more troops from the 4th and 5th Mechanised Infantry Battalions were deployed, according to MindaNews further.
Several checkpoints were put up along the national highway in the coastal towns of Linamon, Barangay Inudaran of Kauswagan, Bacolod and Maigo towns, all in Lanao del Norte, to ensure the safety of civilians, he added.
The Maute Group along with the Abu Sayyaf Group laid siege to Marawi city in 2017 in their quest to carve out territory for the so-called Southeast Asia wilayat or branch of IS.
A five-month urban battle ensued where more than 1,200 people, mostly militants, were killed before government forces liberated the Islamic city in October of that year.