“As per report we received from our commander on the ground of the Special Operations Task Force, the fatalities were five civilians, including a seven-year-old child, and one of the children of a militiaman who was killed in the firefight, and a soldier,” Army Deputy Public Affairs chief Maj. Harold Cabunoc said.
Task Force Commander Col. Alexander Macario could not be reached for comment through his mobile phone.
Cabunoc identified one of the fatalities as Rolly Hashim, a member of the Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit assigned at a detachment of the 20th Special Forces Company, and Private First Class Renz Calacapa.
He said the firefight involved a seven-man team led by Calacapa at about 5:20 a.m. in barangay Upper Benengbengan.
According to Cabunoc, it was Hashim who first put up a fight against the raiding bandits while asking for reinforcement from his detachment.
“Before the incident, Hashim asked permission to go home to his family Monday afternoon. Before dawn today, the neighbors were awakened by automatic gunfire targeting houses, including that of Hashim’s house. He put up a fight while reinforcement was coming but unfortunately he was hit while fighting with our troops for almost one hour. We’re still getting the names of the four civilian fatalities,” he said.
He said some families in the area fled their homes after the firefight.
“This dastardly act of shooting innocent civilians must be condemned by the Muslim community and Filipinos as a whole,” said Macario in a statement forwarded by Cabunoc.
“Our troops on the ground were verifying if the motive of the raid was ‘rido’ or family feud or simply just an act of barbarism and/or terrorism by the ASG. Pursuit operations against the bandits was ongoing up to this time,” he added.
The incident came just three days after rogue members and followers of the Moro National Liberation Front attacked a detachment of the Philippine Marines securing the construction of development projects in Talipao, Sulu that resulted to the death of 13 bandits and two soldiers.
