Maguindanao Norte island village clashes leave 7 armed men dead

COTABATO CITY – A bloody encounter involving two armed groups in an island village in Parang, Maguindanao del Norte left seven gunmen dead, police and military authorities reported Saturday.

Col. Christopher Panapan, chief investigator of the Police Regional Office in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the armed encounter occurred in Bongo Island, off the coast of Parang town on Friday.

"One of the armed groups belonged to Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) while the other was led by a certain Aragasi Tamano, a resident of Bongo Island," Panapan said in a report.

Initial police information showed that several motorized bancas loaded with MILF fighters, led by certain commanders Macmod and Bayam from Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat, arrived in Bongo Island and clashed with the group of Tamano at about 10 a.m.

Members of the Parang municipal police and the 2nd Marine Battalion Landing Team (MBLT-2) proceeded to Bongo Island to protect civilians but were fired upon by gunmen aboard a motorized pump boat at 1 p.m.

It triggered armed hostilities between government forces and the gunmen that left three MILF fighters dead. Their bodies were fished out and brought to a funeral parlor in Poblacion Parang.

According to the MBLT-2, four other bodies of MILF fighters were later fished out from the sea.

The soldiers also recovered two motorboats and assorted firearms.

Panapan said no civilian casualties were reported and the situation in the area has normalized.

"We are determining what triggered the skirmishes involving the armed men," Panapan said, adding that civilians in the village claimed that the warring groups were locked in a long-standing "rido" (family feud).

The police and Marines in the area remain on heightened alert for possible retaliation from comrades of the slain gunmen. (PNA)