Tuesday, June 16, 2009

More fierce battles in Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte

Monday, 15 June 2009 01:54  - MILF News
In a series of retaliatory strikes and as a follow up of their tactical guerrilla offensive in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur yesterday, MILF mujahideen of the 102nd Base Command attacked government troop positions today at 4:15 pm, Sunday, June 14, in Magarang, Wato-Piagapo Boundary, Lanao del Sur.

Seven AFP troops were killed and an undetermined number were wounded. No casualty was reported on the MILF side.

Since fighting broke out yesterday between MILF mujahideen guerrillas and government troops in the same area in Lanao del Sur and in Salvador, Lanao del Norte del Norte, the AFP has been conducting round-the-clock shelling of the scenes of battles using 105 mm howitzers and helicopter gunships. Bodies of dead soldiers reportedly left behind by their withdrawing beleaguered comrades were recovered by reinforcing government troops prompting the AFP, out of rage, to intensify its artillery and air barrage on suspected guerrilla positions. As of 4 pm today, no less than 43 rounds of 105 mm howitzer shells were lobbed by the AFP.

Meanwhile, MILF guerrillas, operating in small groups using hit-and-run tactics and attacking swiftly different targets simultaneously, have caused confusion and almost demoralization in the ranks of government troops occupying rural areas in the Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur boundary. Land routes usually used by military trucks to supply AFP camps in these areas are no longer used for fear of ambush by the mujahideen. Instead, the AFP has to use helicopters to deliver food and ammunition supplies to its troops. At night, MILF snipers, using .50 caliber sniper rifles and RPGs, harass government troop outposts resulting in sleepless nights for soldiers already fatigued by combat duty and harangued by fear of sudden death in the hands of an invisible and elusive Moro guerrilla.

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