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CARMEN, North Cotabato --- The local government, through the town's social welfare and development office, on Tuesday extended assistance to some 210 families displaced by military air strikes on suspected positions of an ISIS-inspired armed group over the weekend in a mountain village here.

The families fled to safer grounds after the Army’s 6th Infantry Division conducted two bombing sorties Saturday in the villages of Tonganon and Bentangan where the group of Esmael Abdulmalik, alias Commander “Abu Torayfe,” leader of a faction of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), was sighted.

Carmen Mayor Roger Taliño, in a statement, said the municipal social welfare office had extended rice, canned goods and other non-food items while the displaced families stay in the village of Lawili in nearby Aleosan town.

The Army also extended help to the affected families and assured them they will be safe from military action aimed at neutralizing the lawless elements.

Army Capt. Napoleon Alcarioto, 602nd Infantry Brigade Civil Military Operations (CMO) chief, said aside from Carmen, the local government of Aleosan also extended assistance to the affected families.

The ISIS-inspired group has been the subject of massive military operations in Maguindanao’s second district and, according to Army intelligence reports, has moved to North Cotabato to evade the combined forces of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Under the GPH-MILF peace agreement forged in 2007, the MILF will provide intelligence information to government forces on the presence of lawless elements and terrorists in areas identified with the MILF.

Alcarioto said the military is verifying information that the air strikes led to several casualties on the armed men’s side. No civilian casualty was reported. (PNA)



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