BIFF death toll climbs to 52 including 13 child warriors, says Army

The number of fatalities among Islamic freedom fighters has risen to 52 as a dozen more of them were killed on Friday, the fifth day of military offensives against a Muslim militant organization that broke away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) five years ago. 

Thirteen of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters' (BIFF) 52 fatalities were child warriors, according to Colonel Dickson Hermoso, spokesperson of the Philippine Army's 6th Infantry Division. 

“They were child fighters...they were in fatigue uniforms with BIFF markings and possessing firearms,” Hermoso said Friday. 

He said 20 of the fatalities had already been identified since the offensive began on January 27. 

The fighting came a day after the government and the MILF signed the final annex of the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement, which the BIFF strongly opposed. 

On the government side, one soldier was killed while 13 other infantrymen were wounded. 

The guerillas are now contained in Barangay Ganta and had shown limited resistance during the offensive, according to Hermoso. 

“Hopefully, with this development the fighting will die down and the internally displaced persons may return home,” Hermoso said.

But BIFF spokesperson Abu Misry Mama maintained that his group only had four fatalities. 

He also belied the Army's claim that the BIFF was showing little resistance. “Our stance remains, we will fight to the last drop of our blood in defense of our rights,” Mama said in a phone interview.

The fighting was happening mostly in Maguindanao but residents of three villages in Pikit, North Cotabatohad fled to safer grounds as government troops occupied the areas to prevent the spillover of the war.

Hermoso said the Army also alerted local government units in communities and towns outside the Maguindanao marshland.

"Our troops in the cities and provinces around the marshland are already on alert since day 1 because our experiences in the past show that BIFF carry out diversionary tactics to ease the heat in Maguindanao," Hermoso said.