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Military, police in hot pursuit of Maguindanao town attackers

Philippines | Luzon

Military, police in hot pursuit of Maguindanao town attackers

By Philippine News Agency

COTABATO CITY – The military and police are in pursuit of suspected Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) terrorists, who attacked the town proper of Datu Piang shortly before midnight Thursday.

Sixth Infantry Division (6th ID) Commander Maj. Gen. Juvymax Uy said they have secured the municipality after receiving calls for assistance from local officials around 11:30 p.m.

“We immediately responded after learning that they were only a bunch of policemen assigned to the municipal police office,” Uy, concurrent chief of the military-led Joint Task Force Central, told reporters here in an interview Friday.

“We have controlled the situation,” he added.

He said military troops engaged the terrorists, who withdrew later.

He said the attackers shot at houses and burned a police car, but clarified that the Santa Catalina Church in Poblacion was not burned as mentioned in initial reports.

“They just burned a police car,” he said.

Uy said a report reaching them identified the attackers as terrorists under the BIFF Karialan faction, a radical group that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Read more: BIFF launches late night attack in Maguindanao town

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