Six soldiers and at least one Islamist militant have been killed in Mindanao, an army spokesman said Monday, as security forces hunted down fighters believed to have bombed a Catholic mass last December.
The clashes took place Sunday in the jungle in Barangay Ramain near the town of Munai in Lanao del Sur, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala told Agence France Presse.
“This is part of the operation against the Dawlah Islamiyah (DI). Unfortunately, we sustained casualties,” he said.
Four soldiers were wounded in addition to those killed, he said, while the retreating gunmen left behind the body of a slain comrade.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief General Romeo Brawner Jr., said this was part of its continuous pursuit operations against members of the DI-Maute Group, which perpetrated the bombing at Mindanao State University in December that left four people dead and 50 others wounded.
“In continuation of this effort, an operation was launched last Feb. 18, resulting in 2 more dead among the enemy and several others wounded based on intelligence information,” Brawner said.
“Six of our valiant soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice while another four were wounded,” he said in a statement.
Maj. Gen. Gabriel Viray III, commander of the 1st Infantry Division, said the total number of killed Maute fighters climbed to three after another body was recovered.
An earlier report from LtCol. Palawan Moindas, spokesperson of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade, put the number of soldiers killed at five, but another was declared dead on arrival.
Moindas said the encounter took place at past 2 p.m. on Sunday in Barangay Ramain. It involved a platoon of soldiers and about 15 members of the DI-Maute Group.
AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said 12 Maute Group members were killed in separate pursuit operations after the bombing.
Previously, Padilla said the DI-Maute Group was on the “brink of collapse.”
The latest encounter brings the total number of Maute fatalities to 15.
Brawner vowed justice for the killed soldiers.
“I assure their families and every Filipino that justice will be meted out, and all efforts will be exhausted in pursuit of the enemy,” he said.
“Our troops are motivated to finish the job and accomplish our mission of defeating local terrorist groups once and for all,” he added.
The Dawlah group is one of several small armed Muslim factions that have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the Dec. 3, 2023 bombing of a Catholic mass in Marawi that killed at least four people and injured dozens of others.
The military said that 10 other Dawlah members were killed last month, including the bombers’ alleged leader Khadafi Mimbesa.
Militant attacks on buses, Catholic churches and public markets have been a feature of decades-long unrest in the south.
Manila signed a peace pact with the nation’s largest rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in 2014, ending their deadly armed rebellion.
But smaller bands of Muslim fighters opposed to the peace deal remain, including IS-linked militants. With Vince Lopez
