2 soldiers killed in Maguindanao hospital attack

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Two soldiers securing a government hospital in a Maguindanao town were killed by suspected members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) on Wednesday night, October 22.

The soldiers were assigned to secure the emergency room of a state hospital in Datu Hoffer town when the suspects, pretending to be visitors of patients, attacked them, said Dr Tahir Sulaik, Maguindanao Integrated Provincial Health chief, who condemned the attack. 

Sulaik  said the unidentified suspects arrived at the hospital at around 9 pm on Wednesday.

The armed suspects reportedly pointed their guns at the soldiers’ backs, forced them to surrender their M-16 rifles, and used the seized weapons to kill the soldiers before fleeing the hospital. No other people were hurt in the attack.

The names of the victims have yet to be released.

Authorities suspect the BIFF liquidation squad to be behind the incident, which comes barely a month after two newly-enlisted soldiers were killed by alleged BIFF members in Datu Piang town in Maguindanao, after they left a church.

This was followed by the murder of another soldier in a busy market in Datu Saudi Ampatuan.

Colonel  Dickson Hermoso, spokesman for the military’s 6th Division, said the attack may be in retaliation to the arrest of the BIFF’s high-ranking member, Abi Salman, also known as Sauman Usman.

At the Provincial Peace and Order meeting in September, security officials cited the creation of a BIFF liquidation team of BIFF, allegedly to avenge their heavy losses in firefights with government troops.

Meanwhile, the military confirmed a firefight between BIFF and government troops in President Quirino town in Sultan Kudarat that began at dawn on Thursday, October 24, after the group attacked a CAFGU detachment in Barangay Katiko. 

Colonel Mel Feliciano, commanding officer of the Army’s 601st Brigade in Tacurong City, confirmed the attack.

The BIFF is a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). – Rappler.com