By Rene Acosta
THE weekend skirmishes between Army troops and a Jema’ah Islamiyah (JI)-allied group, led by an Indonesian in Lanao del Sur, has turned into a full-blown military offensive with troops continuing to pound the terrorists, using artillery, gunships and armored vehicles.
Maj. Filemon Tan, Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command spokesman, said government forces bombarded for the second straight day on Wednesday the group of Omar Maute and its fighters who were holed out at Barangay Bayabao, Butig, Lanao del Sur, while composite ground forces, including Army Scout Rangers, crawled in for the ground operations.
“They are still there and we are continuing to pound them with artillery and rockets from helicopters, supported by armor on the ground,” said Tan, referring to the group of Maute, an Indonesian, who, earlier military reports said, is affiliated with the regional terror group JI.
On Tuesday Armed Forces Spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla described Maute’s group as having more than 100 fighters, and added that the group is affiliated with a leader of the JI,” who has been killed in government operations in 2012.
Padilla, Tan and even the Armed Forces Public Affairs Office chief Col. Noel Detoyato refused to call Maute’s group as a JI members, other than they are members of a “foreign local terrorist organization [FLTO].”
As the fighting rages, Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. created a crisis management committee that will cater to the needs of villagers who left their homes for fear they would be caught in the middle of the fighting.
Saripada Pacasum, assistant head of the Lanao del Sur Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said that at least 335 families have already fled to Marawi City and another 657 families have temporarily resettled in Masiu, Lanao del Sur.
“All of the families were provided with relief goods,” he said.
Pacasum said they were still determining the number of evacuees who have sought shelter in the areas of Lumbatan, Lumbayanague and Poona Bayabao.
Tan said government forces bombarded the terrorists as they put up resistance adding that the terrain leading to the group’s location “foreboding.”
On Tuesday Padilla said that Maute and his group have been surrounded and cordoned off by soldiers as augmentation forces continue to pour in while the terrorists are pounded from the air and by artillery fire.
“There were air strikes and close air support, using MG-520 helicopters and OV-10s…yes, there is also artillery support,” he said.
The fighting between the soldiers and the terrorists began late on Sunday after the group attacked a detachment of the 51st Infantry Battalion.
“The motive for the attack remains undetermined and our troops were able to defend their position. As a result, we incurred two KIAs [killed in action] and six WIAs [wounded in action],” Padilla said.
Butig is a known stronghold of Abdulah Macapaar alias Bravo, one of the senior commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
When the memorandum of agreement on the Ancestral Domain with the MILF was rejected by the Supreme Court in 2008, Macapaar and another senior commander, Ameril Umbra Kato, attacked civilians in Central and Western Mindanao, nearly putting the MILF and the government on full-scale conflict.
Kato later founded the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a group tagged by the government as a terrorist organization.
Padilla said that at least 20 terrorists were killed during the initial bombardment on Tuesday, with military officials saying the bodies were being ferried out on horses.
A convoy of additional reinforcements, which was on its way to the tactical command post of the 103rd Infantry Brigade at Barangay Alog, Lumbatan, was ambushed late on Tuesday, killing another soldier and triggering a 45-minute firefight.