by AJLPP
Friday, Aug. 29, 2008 at 5:57 AM
magsasakapil@hotmail.com 213-241-0906 337 Glendale Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026
The AJLPP and the media sources including Luwaran.com of the MILF confirmed that the AFP offensive in Mindanao grounds into a halt as Ramadan, the holy month of the Muslim world sets in. More than 300,000 people have been dislocated by the fighting between the AFP and the MILF.
The campaign by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to encircle and finally finish off MILF Commander Bravo Macapaar and his 102nd BIAF Base Command has been terribly foiled by the heavy losses in men and materiel on the part of the invading force. This was reported by the Luwaran.com
This is notwithstanding the far superior manpower being utilized by the AFP in the campaign and the sheer air and ground firepower to back up the assaulting troops on the ground. According to ground information an initial of four infantry battalions have been thrown into the fray against Commander Bravo.
AJLPP Update
Mindanao Sit.
Aug.28, 2008
Heavy Army Casualties Foil Encirclement Campaign against Bravo
August 28, 2008
Davao City-- The AJLPP and the media sources including Luwaran.com of the MILF confirmed that the AFP offensive in Mindanao grounds into a halt as Ramadan, the holy month of the Muslim world sets in. More than 300,000 people have been dislocated by the fighting between the AFP and the MILF.
The campaign by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to encircle and finally finish off MILF Commander Bravo Macapaar and his 102nd BIAF Base Command has been terribly foiled by the heavy losses in men and materiel on the part of the invading force. This was reported by the Luwaran.com
This is notwithstanding the far superior manpower being utilized by the AFP in the campaign and the sheer air and ground firepower to back up the assaulting troops on the ground. According to ground information an initial of four infantry battalions have been thrown into the fray against Commander Bravo.
An additional Marine battalion as well as more army units from the different AFP commands in the Visayas and Northern Mindanao is also being deployed for the campaign. The encirclement and suppression campaign by the AFP has resulted into running firefights and gun battles between MILF forces under Commander Bravo and government troops in the municipalities of Poona Piagapo, Pantao Ragat and Munai in Lanao del Norte.
Avoiding frontal attacks on a more superior enemy, the MILF mujahideen have shifted to guerrilla warfare and have been staging ambuscades on Filipino troops advancing towards the interior of Lanao del Norte where Commander Bravo is perceived to be holed up.
MILF Advantage
The mujahideen’s knowledge of the terrain, their high morale and willingness to fight and be martyred for the Islamic Moro cause are crucial factors that more than compensate for the strategic superiority of the AFP and its use of excessive force. For the past couple of days now, most of the fighting is taking place in Poona Piagapo, Lanao del Norte.
Here is the summary of the field report from Luwaran war correspondents in Lanao del Norte: August 24 -
The mujahideen ambushed a large formation of Filipino troops backed by armored vehicles at Radapan, Poona Piagapo. One battle tank was hit by mujahideen RPG and badly damaged, its occupants either killed or wounded. In this engagement 38 soldiers were killed, twenty plus were wounded.
The mujahideen suffered one martyred and one wounded. The following day, August 25, one company of soldiers was ambushed in Siagapud, Piagapo. The army company was being deployed as part of the military cordon to seal off Bravo’s exit from Lanao del Norte when the ambuscade took place. Only six soldiers survived. Another ambush on the same day was staged by the mujahideen at Radapan, Poona Piagapo against on-coming government troops.
An undetermined number of soldiers was killed or wounded. The badly mauled troops had to retreat back to Pantao-Ragat from where they came. Firefights also simultaneously occurred in Nunang, Poona Piagapo.
Government troops similarly suffered heavy casualties in these engagements. Meanwhile, it has been reported and verified that government troops had been going on a rampage because of heavy casualties. Atrocities and human rights abuses are being committed on the Moro civilian populace in the conflict areas. That same day, August 25, nine (9) male innocent Moro peasants who were harvesting coconuts in Poona Piagapo were taken by force by government troops and were subsequently massacred in a firing squad fashion.
The names of the Moro victims are: Mensuary Malicapao, Alagar Bangon, one only known as Ibrahim, Mohaimen Macasundig, Dodong Ibrahim, Bebeng Goma, Oden Teca, Alinor Teca and one other still unidentified. An investigation of this massacre has yet to be conducted considering the fact that the area where the victims were brutally killed is within the combat zone, and fighting is still going on between MILF and government forces there. August 26 -
AFP Grind into a Halt as Ramadan Comes
Ground assaults by government forces against the mujahideen seemed to have temporarily taken a pause to allow the AFP to reassess its tactical movements as well as regroup, consolidate, and infuse fresh troops into the forces deployed against the MILF.
No significant ground engagement had taken place on this day but the battle zones were subjected to heavy artillery and aerial bombardment. In the afternoon of the same day, a battalion of Philippine Marines arrived at the docks of Iligan City. More troop reinforcements from Luzon and the Visayas have been reported and are expected to arrive anytime in Lanao del Norte.
August 27 – Beefed up by fresh troop reinforcements, the AFP commenced its infantry assaults backed by heavy artillery, mortar and aerial bombardment on mujahideen positions in Lanao del Norte. Bloody firefights ensued and more casualties were inflicted by the mujahideen on government troops. However, the AFP’s sheer force of number and resorting to heavy concentration of armored tanks, artillery and aerial bombardment compelled the mujahideen to reposition and withdraw from a “satellite camp” in Nunang, Piagapo.
This repositioning allowed more maneuverability and flexibility for the mujahideen to conduct tactical guerrilla counter-attacks and counter-encirclement against the AFP.
In a parallel development, as battles raged in Lanao del Norte and other areas in the Bangsamoro homeland, Luwaran asked a member of the MILF Central Committee who requested anonymity as to what he thinks of the demand by the Philippine government for the MILF to surrender two of its base commanders Ameril Ombra Kato and Bravo Macapaar. “MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim has already publicly defined the stand of the Front on that matter. We all should adhere to that.
It is a policy. Besides, there is nothing in the MILF-GRP agreements, notably the agreement on the cessation of hostilities, which would require the MILF to surrender to the government any erring MILF member. The MILF has its own justice system; so let the MILF do the investigation, as the Chairman has already ordered, and determine the penalties should such penalties be imposed,” said the MILF official.
“The government is trying to change the ground rules by demanding that the MILF should surrender Commanders Kato and Bravo,” he further remarked. “What if we also demand from the Philippine government that those Filipino officials guilty of war crimes against the Bangsamoro people should be surrendered to the MILF? I don’t think the government would like that. They would say it is absurd. So why demand the same from us? No way. The government is just using the trumped-up allegations against Ustadz Kato and Bravo to deflect attention from the failure of the Arroyo regime to sign the MOA-AD in Kuala Lumpur last August 5,” the MILF official concluded.