From the Business Mirror (Jan 2): BIFF rebels attack government forces in 3 incidents
MEMBERS of the breakaway Moro group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) harassed three military units in North Cotabato on Tuesday in their continuing efforts to scuttle the peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the intermittent firing on the headquarters of the 7th Infantry Battalion (IB), 5th Special Forces (SF), Battalion and 40th IB wounded one soldier.
BIFF fighters, who positioned themselves at Barangay Dasawao, Datu Piang, Maguindanao, intermittently fired on the headquarters of the 7th IB and 5th SF Battalion beginning 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
The harassment went on until Wednesday.
“The harassment was intermittent and it raged until the morning of January 1. Of course, the soldiers were also responding with fire,” Hermoso said.
“The BIFF does not really want the talks between the government and the MILF to prosper. Every time there are scheduled talks, the BIFF would always conduct harassment activities,” he said.
Almost simultaneously with the attacks, another group of BIFF fighters fired on the detachment of the 40th IB at Barangay Nabalawag, Midsayap, North Cotabato for about 30 minutes.
The BIFF, which broke away from the MILF, is opposed to the ongoing talks, preferring to wage a conflict with the government in pursuit of an independent state in Mindanao.
The group is currently headed by renegade Commander Ameril Umbra Kato, but whom Hermoso said is no longer running the operations of the group because he is already bedridden due to a stroke.
Instead, the group is being ran by three leaders he identified as alias Karingalan, Dungos and Tambako.
“But the group already removed Tambako,” Hermoso said.
“They want to project that they are still strong, so they started 2014 by harassing the government,” he said.