Philippine military denies killing Moro Islamic Liberation Front members in weekend clash

The Philippine military defended itself Wednesday against allegations that it killed members of a former Muslim guerrilla group, which had signed a peace deal with Manila in 2014, during a weekend shootout in the south. 

Philippine officials say the seven people slain during the clash with government forces in Maguindanao on Sunday were members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a pro-Islamic State group and breakaway faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). 

Maguindanao lies within the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which the latter group now controls as part of the peace agreement struck nine years ago.

On Sunday, police and army personnel carried out an operation to serve a search warrant for a cache of firearms owned by BIFF commander Nasser Yusuf Hussain and Nurjihad Hussain, outside Datu Paglas, a town in Maguindanao, officials said. The two however resisted and opened fire on the government troops, provoking a gun-battle that led to their deaths and those of the five other BIFF fighters, the military said.

“Troops fired back, which resulted in the deaths of the seven BIFF members, including the two subjects of the search warrants,” regional military spokesman Major Andrew Linao said.

The operation also resulted in the seizure of three 45-caliber pistols, two M-16 rifles, an Uzi machine pistol, and assorted ammunition, he said.

He insisted that the slain men were BIFF militants, and not with the MILF.

“The important thing is there’s a warrant, and they resisted. The military and police executed the task as ordered by the judge,” Linao told reporters. “We are certain the seven were BIFF. There was just a claim they are MILF but we respect that statement. We will not refute [it]. But for us in the military, we know these guys.”

The BIFF has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, and has been active in bombing activities in the south. It supported the siege of Marawi city by pro-IS militants in the south in 2017, but did not send fighters to the area. Instead, it launched diversionary attacks elsewhere to ease the military pressure on their comrades.

Linao said the Hussain brothers were also involved in a brief occupation of a public market in the town of Datu Paglas in May last year that spurred the evacuation of residents near the area. 

Sunday’s operation was “covered by a warrant,” he said.

“The government troops were just performing their task. The question is why did they [BIFF] open fire? It’s a legitimate government operation,” Linao said.

Mohagher Iqbal, chairman of the MILF peace implementing panel who is a senior official in the government of the autonomous region, disputed the Philippine military’s assertions.

He said those who were gunned down belonged to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, now a political entity with jurisdiction in the area where the clash occurred.

“There was no coordination for the operation,” Iqbal told reporters, adding that the MILF was preparing to file a complaint against the operating team for allegedly violating a pact that called on the national police to coordinate with MILF forces if they were carrying out an operation in MILF-controlled areas to avoid mis-encounters.

Mirinda Madidis Hussain, the mother of the two targets of the arrest warrant, said her sons were not BIFF members but with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. One of the brothers, Nasser, was a brigade commander of the MILF, a fact confirmed by the group.

“They forcibly entered our house and shot [my sons],” she said.

But regional police head Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza said that Nasser Hussain was on the government’s wanted list as a leader of the BIFF responsible for carrying out recent attacks.

The BIFF was also blamed for a 2019 bomb attack in the market of Isulan town that injured more than two dozen civilians.

Froilan Gallardo and Richel V. Umel contributed to this report from Cagayan de Oro city, southern Philippines.