Sources said the police
commandos, running low on ammunition, waited for military reinforcements that
never came.
“When the heavy skirmishes
started, our men fighting a lopsided battle requested for reinforcement from
their Army counterparts but after hours of holding their ground nobody came,” a
SAF officer said.
Several army units have forward
bases at Datu Saudi Ampatuan and Datu Piang, two towns near the encounter site
in Mamasapano.
Capt. Jo-Anne Petinglay, 6th
Infantry Division spokesman based in Awang, Maguindanao, said Army troops did
not get involved in the fighting in the absence of prior coordination from SAF
about operations against Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan.
An official, who asked not be
named, said no prior coordination was made on the SAF’s anti-terror operation,
but that troops on the ground knew where the SAF commandos were headed.
“Yes, we did not coordinate as
we don’t want any leak,” he said. “But was it correct to just let your
brother-in-arms die in the hands of the enemy?”
A middle-grade Army officer
said Army troops were ready to reinforce the police commandos, but that their
hands were tied by the government’s ceasefire agreement with the Moro Islamic
Liberation Force (MILF).
If Army troops had joined the
fighting, it could have resulted in more casualties on the government side, he
added.
The Army officer said police
commandos could have mistook the Army troops as the enemy and vice versa.
Army troops could not also just
enter the area as the prevailing situation on the ground was then very fluid
and could have resulted in a “mis-encounter,” he added.
Fighting stopped after the MILF
panel initiated moves for a ceasefire to allow police reinforcements to collect
and extricate the bodies of their fallen comrades with the help of US forces.
The official said US soldiers
were seen on the ground helping retrieve the bodies of slain police commandos.
The bodies were loaded onto US helicopters.
The MILF and BIFF used the
ceasefire to retreat to their areas of control in barangay Pidsandawan, Mamasapano
and barangays Linantangan and Lusay in Shariff Saydona.
MILF,
BIFF TRAP SAF TROOPS
An MILF brigade joined the BIFF
in firing mortars and rockets against two companies of outnumbered SAF troops
caught in a pinch in Mamasapano town, according to the Moro National Liberation
Front (MNLF).
As of press time, MNLF field
commanders reported heavy movement of MILF and BIFF guerrillas in the area,
MNLF spokesman Absalom Cerveza told The STAR in a telephone interview.
“The situation is very fluid,
anything can happen,” he said.
Cerveza said the MNLF field
commander near the scene reported heavy fighting from 5 a.m. Sunday until noon.
The police commandos were
pinned down with constant firing from some 300 BIFF snipers hidden among
coconut trees and in tall grass, he added. – Jaime Laude, Perseus Echeminada
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