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| Member of PNP-SAF carried the bodies of their slain comradewho was killedduring encounter at Mamasapano, Maguindanao. |
The MILF says the first casualties were from its side, as it reiterates that members of the police Special Action Force fired the first shots in Mamasapano.
Members
of elite Police Special Action Force carry bodies of their comrade who was
killed in an encounter in the town of Mamasapano, Maguindanao province,
Philippines, 26 January 2015. Fighting between police and Muslim rebels in the
southern Philippines has left at least 43 people dead, a police report said.
Police were trying to arrest two suspected Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists in the
town of Mamasapano in Maguindanao province, 960 kilometres south of Manila,
when the clash erupted. The rebels belonged to the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF), which signed a peace deal with the government in March, and to
its breakaway faction the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, which opposed
the agreement. EPA/ALTHEA BALLENTES
MANILA,
Philippines – Police commandos – particularly, members of the 55th Special
Action Company (SAC) – used
the bodies of their dead comrades as shield at the height of the firefight in
Mamasapano, Maguindanao, against members of rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF).
This
was revealed in the MILF's report on the Mamasapano clash which was released
Tuesday, March 24.
"The MILF men saw that some of the 55 SAC men's
bodies were found underneath one another as if purposely piled. They noticed
that the dead bodies sustained multiple gunshot wounds. They realized later
from the position of the dead bodies and the number of wounds of some of the 55
SAC that some of them had used the bodies of their dead comrades as shied
during the intense fighting," said the report.
The 55th SAC of the police
Special Action Force (SAF) served as the blocking force of the 84th SAC,
which was tasked to serve the warrants of arrest to wanted terrorist Zulkifli
bin Hir (Marwan) and Abdul Basit Usman. Marwan was killed but Usman was able to
get away.
MILF submitted the report to the
International Monitoring Team, with copies provided to the government and the
Senate, among others.
The MILF reiterated its side that
it was the the SAF who fired the first shot in Mamasapano.
Armed members of the MILF were
about to cross the bridge from Barangay Tukanalipao to Sitio Amalil when they
were fired upon. Two members of the MILF's 105th Base Command were killed at
that instance.
Fighting ensued as the MILF men
retreated to the other side of the river, with more members of the 105th BC
joining them afterwards.
There were more or less 100 MILF men that joined the
clash and "there was no organized central command that was in
charge," the report said.
The report also stated that some members of the 118th
Base Command led by Commander Wahid Tundok joined the clashes.
As earlier reported in the media,
the combatants thought that they were engaging members of the Philippine Army,
whom they had considered as enemy forces since they fired the first shots.
Fighting was done at close-range
– at one point, hostilities were exchanged with the forces just 3-4 meters away
from each other, the report said.
"While the BIAF could not
clearly see whom they were fighting against, they concluded these were not
friendly forces as they had initiated the first shots – shots that were fatal
to two of their men," the report said.
The MILF has maintained that the
government's failure to coordinate the police operation against Marwan and
Usman led to the clash that killed at least 66 individuals, including 44 elite
cops and 5 civilians.
The report said 17 MILF
combatants died during the clash. The rebel group earlier said 18 had died. – Rappler.com
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