MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Eight bandits were killed while seven soldiers were wounded in hostilities this week in the province, sparked by an attack last Wednesday on an Army team studying Moro culture in Mamasapano town. The sources, among them elected officials, identified the BIFF fatalities as Monib, a certain “Boy ISIS,” Odin, Bansil, Bohari, Nasif, Badrudin and an adolescent named Salik. Nation ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1The skirmishes last Wednesday escalated when BIFF members fired at soldiers patrolling in nearby Barangay Meta in Datu Unsay to avenge the deaths of three bandits killed in their incursions earlier the same day in Barangay Kuloy in Mamasapano. “The BIFF is known for harassing and even executing villagers on mere suspicion of conniving with the military,” Samad Kusin, a 45-year-old farmer, said in the Maguindanaon dialect. They told reporters it was the BIFF that provoked the hostilities, which erupted early Wednesday and waned late Thursday, displacing more than 500 ethnic Maguindanaon families.

Source: Philippine Star July 16, 2016 05:57 UTC