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| Southeast Asia |
| Twenty houses torched in continuing MILF-BIFF clashes |
| 2015-02-19 |
| [Gulf Today] Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front set fire to twenty houses in at least seven villages in North Cotabato province in Mindanao that forced at least 15,000 people to flee their homes. Officer Norudin Solaiman, the chief police investigator, said the arson stemmed from continuing clashes between the MILF and its secessionist group the BIFF. He said the clashes, which already resulted in the deaths of an MILF commander and six other combatants, also forced hundreds of families to evacuate. Solaiman stressed the clashes between the MILF and the BIFF were not caused by the killing of 44 elite police commandos on January 25. Instead, he said the clashes stemmed from rido (clan war) between the slain MILF commander and his BIFF rival for control of villages in North Cotabato and Maguindanao. BIFF spokesman Abu Misry Mama promised they would get revenge as he accused Governor Emmylou Mendoza-Talino of North Cotabato of supporting the MILF in their continuing clashes. Mama warned these would include attacks on civilian populations in North Cotabato's "vulnerable" towns and cities. |
| Posted by:ryuge |