A soldier was killed and three others wounded when Muslim militants simultaneously attacked military detachments in two southern Philippine provinces yesterday, Philippine army spokeswoman Captain Jo-ann Petinglay said.
An hour-long gun battle broke out when separatist rebel group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) raided a camp in President Quirino town in Sultan Kudarat Province shortly after midnight, Petinglay said in a statement.
The BIFF, which opposes current peace talks between the country’s main Muslim rebel group — the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government, also launched an attack on a camp in General Salipada K Pendatun town in Maguindanao Province, she said.
The raids were meant to sabotage the negotiations, Petinglay said, adding that the separatists “will continually be a potent spoiler to peace.”
The BIFF split from the MILF in 2008 to fight for a separate Islamic state in the Philippines.
The military had also blamed the BIFF for a bus bombing in the south of the Philippines last month that claimed 10 lives, and an ambush in November that killed an army major and two of his men.
The MILF signed a peace deal with President Begnino Aquino III’s administration in March last year, which paved the way for an expansion of the current autonomous Muslim region.
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