Philippine military liquidated Islamists

Nine Islamist militants, including three suspected of a Catholic mass bombing in the southern Philippines, were killed in a clash with troops, the military said Saturday. Army soldiers liquidated them while they were hiding in a mountain farm near the remote southern municipality of Piagapo, the military unit commander said. In the firefight, nine of the Islamists were killed and four soldiers were wounded, including two who were taken to hospital with "serious" wounds, army brigade commander Brigadier General Yegor Rey Barroquio told AFP. He said three of the six suspects in the bombing of a Catholic mass at a school in the southern city of Marawi last month were among those killed in Thursday's clashes. "Of the nine, three were directly involved in the bombing," Barroquillo said, referring to the Dec. 4 explosion at the Mindanao State University in Marawi that left four people dead and dozens injured. Barocchio said three other bombing suspects were still at large, including the alleged mastermind, a former university student who called himself "The Engineer."
Army Scout Rangers, trained in jungle combat, crept up to a group of mountain farms where the suspects had sought refuge to avoid pursuit after the bombing. "Six (gunmen) managed to escape and we believe the Engineer was among them," Barroquillo said, adding that the farmers had left the area earlier this month after the arrival of the gunmen.
Armed attacks on buses, Catholic churches and public markets are part of the decades-long unrest in the south. In 2014, Manila signed a peace accord with the country's largest rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, ending their bloody armed insurgency. But smaller groups of Muslim fighters who oppose the peace deal remain, including extremists pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group. /BGNES